[Frequency of life-threatening complications associated with exercise testing (author's transl)]

Most of the statistics on complications of ergometric exercise tests come from the United States and are largely related to treadmill ergometry. A questionnaire was sent in the summer of 1978 to 198 investigative units in the German-speaking regions. The results of 1065 923 person-tests were made available. Exercise testing of 353 638 sports-persons revealed no serious complications. On the other hand, testing of 712 285 patients, predominantly with coronary heart disease, lead to 17 deaths and a total of 96 life-threatening complications. The result of this survey indicates that one must expect one such complication for every 7500 ergometry tests. The danger of pulmonary oedema on exercise in recumbency is about five times higher than that on sitting or standing. The most frequent complication was ventricular fibrillation. A defibrillator should therefore always be immediately available during exercise tests.