Sport test

Question

Hello,
what does the sport test include in the frame of the year-check of CF patients? Is it the 6-minutes-walking test respecitvely running test? Or are there any further "exercises"?
And what is there measured in detail?
Thank you

Answer

Hello G.,
the sport test is unfortunately not yet a standard part of the year check in all CF-centers. There are in here different possiblities, one of those is the 6-minutes-walking test. Here, the distance is measured in meters that can be walked within 6 minutes, in parallel, the oxygen saturation is measured. However, this makes only sense, if there is already a certain impairment of the lung function, as otherwise the walking distance is very long.
In case of a good lung function, the performace of a so-called spiroergometry makes more sense. This exercise test has a duration of 8-12 minutes, hereby the burden is increased in slow steps until termination because of exhaustion (either due to the muscles or the breathing). The burden is done mostly on the bicycle, however can also be on the treadmill. Hereby, the heart rate, the oxygen saturation and the intake of oxygen and the emission of carbon dioxide measured. With this investigation one can determine most accurately the degree of fitness of a patient and one can give tips for a sport training program. In case of patients with a poor lung function the spiroergometry makes also sense, as then can e.g. be measured, if oxygen supplementation would be sensible in case of exercise. As this investigation is however time-consuming and has high staff expenses, it is often not done routinely.

Best regards,
Prof. Dr. med. R. Fischer

06.05.2015