Abstract 326: Comparison of Patients’ Subjective Sense of Well Being and Their Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Results

Abstract

Introduction: The cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) helps assess exercise tolerance in patients. The CPET is a better predictor of general health status and functional capacity (fc) when compared with resting cardiac and pulmonary function testing measurements (1). The test makes use of a bicycle ergometer with the patient being fitted with ECG leads, blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, and a face mask which determines the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide released. The predicted peak oxygen consumption per unit body weight per unit time (VO2max) is calculated based on patient’s sex, age, weight and height (2). Fc is measured as a percentage of VO2max that was actually consumed. Objective: Our study evaluates any relationship between the CPET fc results and patient’s sense of overall well-being, which provides a subjective measure of their quality of life. Methods: In this retrospective study, we randomly selected 299 patients who visited the clinic using electronic medical records from May-June 2019. There were 260 females and 39 males, with ages between 16-82 years. Patient history was analyzed to look for “overall health rating” scores; how they felt about their overall health on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 denoting feeling the worst and 10 indicating feeling the best of their health. Their CPET fc results were analyzed at the same time, where values <55% meant severely reduced fc, ≥55% but <70% meant moderately reduced fc, ≥70% but <80% meant mildly reduced fc, and ≥80% meant normal fc. Logistic regression was used to look for an association between the values of the overall health rating and CPET fc results, where patient’s age and sex were used as control variables. Results: With each score increase in the overall health rating, the odds of the fc value being normal than being mildly/moderately/severely reduced increases by 1.2 times, given the patient sex and age remain constant (95%CI (0.76,0.98), p = 0.019<0.05). Conclusion: The results reveal a statistically significant association between the patients' overall health rating and their CPET fc results. The higher the numerical value of the overall health rating and the better the patients feel about their health, the greater the probability that the patient will also have a better CPET fc result. Thus the CPET fc can be used as an objective value to assess a patient’s overall well being.