Cardiopulmonary exercise testing is well tolerated in people with Alzheimer-related cognitive impairment

Abstract

Objective: To retrospectively assess whether cardiopulmonary exercise testing would be well tolerated in individuals with Alzheimer disease (AD) compared with a nondemented peer group.

Design: We retrospectively reviewed 575 cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) in individuals with and without cognitive impairment caused by AD.

Setting: University medical center.

Participants: Exercise tests (N=575) were reviewed for nondemented individuals (n=340) and those with AD-related cognitive impairment (n=235).

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main outcome measures: The main outcome measure for this study was reporting the reason for CPET termination. The hypothesis reported was formulated after data collection.

Results: We found that in cognitively impaired individuals, CPETs were terminated because of fall risk more often, but that overall test termination was infrequent-5.5% versus 2.1% (P=.04) in peers without cognitive impairment. We recorded 6 cardiovascular and 7 fall risk events in those with AD, compared with 7 cardiovascular and 0 fall risk events in those without cognitive impairment.

Conclusions: Our findings support using CPETs to assess peak oxygen consumption in older adults with cognitive impairment caused by AD.

Keywords: Adverse effects; Dementia; Rehabilitation.