Treadmill walking protocol for the diagnostic evaluation and exercise programming of cardiac patients.

This study (1) describes a treadmill walking protocol which has been used safely in over 40,000 tests since 1960, (2) presents normative data on oxygen consumption (VO2) so that it may be determined from work load without direct measurement, and (3) demonstrates simple techniques for early activity prescription or later therapeutic walking programs for patients after myocardial infarction (MI) based on this treadmill test. Normative data are presented on 131 subjects. There were no significant differences in VO2 values at the various work loads dependent on age, gender, fitness level, familiarity with the test procedure, clinical status, or the presence or absence of beta blockade. The protocol was then applied in cardiac rehabilitation of 25 patients. As a low level test, in 2 to 9 minutes patients attained 56 to 83% of age-predicted maximal heart rate. The translation of these data into early activity guidelines is shown. For a walking program, the maximal speed attained at 10% grade on the treadmill when walked on level ground put patients in the target heart rate zone for cardiovascular conditioning.