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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Conducting Maximal and Submaximal Endurance Exercise Testing to Measure Physiological and Biological Responses to Acute Exercise in Humans
Published on: October 17, 2018
Sarcoidosis: the value of exercise testing
A E Medinger1, S Khouri, P K Rohatgi
1Pulmonary Physiology Laboratory, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, USA.
Study Objectives:
To evaluate exercise testing for the assessment of the extent of pulmonary disease in patients with sarcoidosis.
Design:
Retrospective analysis of consecutive patients with sarcoidosis referred to the Pulmonary Physiology Laboratory between 1992 and 1997, who completed at least 6 min of progressive bicycle exercise. Resting and exercise pulmonary function measurements were compared to radiographic stage of disease.
Setting:
Pulmonary Physiology Laboratory at Washington, DC, Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Patients:
Forty-eight outpatient veterans with biopsy specimen-proven sarcoidosis.
Results:
Across all radiographic stages of sarcoidosis, total lung capacity, resting diffusing capacity, and exercise gas exchange measurements had a significant variance with radiographic stage. Across the early radiographic stage disease (stages 0 to 2), the change in alveolar-arterial oxygen pressure gradient between rest and exercise, normalized for oxygen uptake, was the most significant measurement in its variation with radiographic stage.
Conclusions:
Changes in gas exchange with exercise may be the most sensitive physiologic measurements to assess the extent of disease in early radiographic stages of sarcoidosis.
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