Assessing the Exercise Intensity of Patients With Cardiovascular Disease: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A TREADMILL...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Exercise Physiology
• Clinical Exercise Testing
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Accurate exercise intensity assessment is crucial for managing cardiovascular disease (CVD).
• Traditional methods may have limitations in clinical settings for CVD patients.
• The treadmill talk test (TT) offers a potential alternative for evaluating exercise intensity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a novel treadmill talk test (TT) protocol.
• The protocol is based on the 6-minute walk test predicted average speed (6MWS).
• The aim is to evaluate exercise intensity in adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Main Methods:

• A cardiopulmonary exercise test was conducted, followed by two treadmill TT sessions.
• The TT protocol used a 2% incline and 70% of 6MWS for the initial workload.
• Participants reported speech comfort (comfortable, uncertain, uncomfortable) at each stage; validity was assessed by correlating heart rate and workload at ventilatory thresholds (VT) and TT stages.

Main Results:

• Twenty-five CVD patients (60 ± 8 years) participated.
• The protocol demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (ICC2,1 = .86).
• Heart rate and workload values correlated well between ventilatory thresholds (VT1, VT2) and corresponding TT stages (TT+, TT-); speech comfort assessment showed excellent intrarater and interrater agreement (ICC2,1 > .90).

Conclusions:

• The treadmill TT protocol based on 6MWS is a valid, reproducible, and reliable tool.
• It can effectively evaluate, prescribe, and monitor exercise intensity zones for CVD patients.
• The exercise intensity zone is defined between the last TT+ (comfortable speech) and TT- (uncomfortable speech) stages.