Objective

Cardio-pulmonary exercise testing (CPEX) is the 'gold standard' for the evaluation of cardiopulmonary function and, it is used as a discriminatory test in determining inclusion/exclusion of borderline patients for surgery. It is not clear how much understanding clinicians who frequently use the results in decision-making have of the test. We therefore conducted a survey to determine the knowledge and understanding of the relevant staff, at our institution.

Methods

We sent questionnaires to 60 clinicians, including consultants and trainees in Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Anaesthesia, Respiratory medicine and anaesthetic Physicians Assistants, who regularly attend the lung multi-disciplinary team meetings at our hospital. The questions enquired about the methodologies of CPEX, the method that gave the greatest MVO2 (Maximal oxygen uptake) for the same work being done, and which method was used locally.

Results

We got 29 responses out of 60 (48.3%). 38% gave the correct response about the method that gave the greatest MVO2. Less than 10% knew the method of CPEX that was used locally. Of the 29 responses, 41.3% thought the method of used to obtain CPEX influenced the results, 17.2% disagreed, and 37.9% did not know if the method made any difference.

Conclusion

Although CPEX is frequently used as a pre-operative test and is the gold standard for assessment of cardiopulmonary fitness, it is clear that there is limited knowledge of the methodologies of this test and their relevance to the test results. We suggest the education of relevant clinical teams to improve the understanding of the test so informed decisions can be made about patient care.