Abstract
Twenty-nine patients with documented coronary artery disease underwent cardiopulmonary exercise tests before and following a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The patients medication regimen and exercise protocols remained the same in both cases. Following PTCA, significant improvement (p < 0.001–0.0001) was noted in oxygen consumption (1,526.8 ± 470.0 vs. 1,686.2 ± 390 ml/min), oxygen pulse (12.40 ± 2.73 vs. 13.44 ± 2.9 ml/beat), oxygen pulse score (7.62 ± 1.29 vs. 8.85 ± 1.26 points) and in the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (993.1 ± 177.6 vs. 1,089.8 ± 150.9 ml/min) but not (p > 0.05) in maximal heart rate (128.7 ± 16.9 vs. 132.0 ± 17.2 beats/min). Thus, a cardiopulmonary exercise test is an effective method to assess functional results following PTCA.