[Comparative evaluation of different physical load tests in patients who have had a myocardial infarct]

A comparative analysis of the results of exercise tests conducted in 2 groups of patients following myocardial infarction was done on the basis of data from the A.L. Myasnikov Institute of Cardiology, USSR Acad. Med. Sci., and the research group of medical rehabilitation of the Humboldt University, Berlin. Continuous and interrupted step-wisely growing bicycle exercises in sitting position were compared. The duration of each step comprised 5 min with pedalling at 60 rpm. With continuous tests every step increase the workload by 25 W. With stepwise tests in half of the patients the work load was increasing by 25 W every step, in the other half--by 16.7 W, the pause between the steps lasting 10 min. It was found that the main parameters of both types of tests did not differ in the two centers, as shown by statistical processing; an identical threshold capacity of the workload, equal elevations of the arterial pressure and heart contractions rate at the peak of the test were obtained. No differences were revealed in the criteria of test interruption with both types of examinations in the two centers. A slight tendency towards a greater elevation of the heart contractions rate and systolic arterial pressure was noted with continuous tests, in contrast to the step-wise. This results in a greater variance of the workability parameters when comparing the results. Therefore it seems preferable to conduct one type of tests--the continuous one.