Abstract

Background. Reducing the duration of hospital stay of coronary surgery patients makes it necessary to develop reliable methods for the evaluation of their physical capacity. The aims of this study were as follows: 1. to assess the physical capacity of CABG patients. 2. to correlate the results of the treadmill test and the three-stage walking test. Material and methods. The study group consisted of 71 men aged 35-74 years qualified to undergo CABG with EF>40% and with no arrhythmias or cardias conduction defects. All patients received comprehensive rehabilitation care. The following tests were performed before (examination 1) and 3 months after CABG (examination 2): modified 3-stage walking test according to Bassey and treadmill exercise test to the Bruce protocol. Parameters evaluated comprised energy expenditure (E, kJ/ml), maximum workload (METs), oxygen consumption (VO2, ml/min/kg), and oxygen pulse (HRO2, ml/systole). Results. Significant improvements across all parameters examined were observed three months after CABG. Treadmill exercise test results were significantly better than the results of the walking test (p<0.001). There were correlations for oxygen pulse (r=0.63) and energy expenditure (r=0.51) between the treadmill test and self-paced walking test results at 3 months after CABG. Conclusions. The three-stage walking test may be useful in the evaluation of physical capacity. It may supplement clinical evaluation in post-CABG patients.

Key words:

cardiac rehabilitation, walking test, exercise test, VO2, CABG