Development and evaluation of a treadmill-based exercise tolerance test in cardiac rehabilitation.

Cardiac rehabilitation exercise prescriptions should be based on exercise stress tests; however, limitations in performing stress tests in this setting typically force reliance on subjective measures like the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI). We developed and evaluated a treadmill-based exercise tolerance test (ETT) to provide objective physiologic measures without requiring additional equipment or insurance charges. The ETT is stopped when the patient's Borg scale rating of perceived exertion (RPE) reaches 15 or when any sign/symptom indicates risk of an adverse event.