Exercise testing in ischaemic heart disease.

The exercise test may be regarded as an objective measure of functional capacity and a useful adjunct to the history given by the patient. As a means of diagnosis it has many limitations but a positive result in a male patient provides good corroborative evidence for the presence of coronary artery disease. As a means of predicting severity of disease the test remains imperfect but may prove useful with further refinements. The exercise test is of little value for screening except in special circumstances.