Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Parameters among Dialysis Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease

The current study aimed to assess some parameters of the cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) among end-stage renal disease patients who underwent dialysis. The ultimate goal is to improve disease management to achieve optimal quality of life and exercise capacity in this group of patients.

Through a cross-sectional design, the current study enrolled 46 dialysis patients by simple sampling between Jan 2019 and Jan 2020. Some CPET parameters such as AT, VO2, VO2/kg, SPO2, minute ventilation CO2 production/O2 consumption ratios (VE/VCO2 and VE/VO2, respectively), O2 pulse, heart rate reserve (HRR), breathing reserve (BR) and end-tidal carbon dioxide pressure (PETCO2) were focused.

Although a limited sample size, the current study showed that VO2/Kg, VE/VCO2, PETCO2, and SPO2 are the main parameters affected by dialysis as expected.

The current study suggests using cardiopulmonary rehabilitation for all chronic medical conditions such as chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease that increase the rate of metabolic acidosis.