LAUSR

Exertional dyspnea is a common complaint for patients seen in pulmonary, cardiac and general medicine clinics, and elucidating the cause is often challenging, particularly when physical examination, echocardiography, radiography and pulmonary function test results are inconclusive. Invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) has emerged as the gold standard test to define causes of dyspnea and exertional limitation in this population. In this review, we describe the methods for performing and interpreting invasive CPET, with particular attention to the hemodynamic and blood sampling data as they apply to patients being evaluated for heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.