===================================================================================

Virtual European Practicum of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing:

 Program Wednesday 25th November 2020
LAST UPDATED Monday November 23rd 2020

PART 1
 
Video 1                 Piergiuseppe Agostoni        An introductory presentation  < 10-15mins
Video 2                 Arno Schmidt-Trucksass   ‘Physiological basis of exercise performance’ Part 1 30 mins                   
Video 3                Arno Schmidt-Trucksass.   ‘Physiological basis of exercise performance’ Part 2 30 mins                       
Video 4                 Paul Older                                ‘Basic facts pertaining to cardiopulmonary exercise testing’ 30 mins
Video 5                 Piergiuseppe Agostoni     ‘Pathophysiology of Exercise Limitation’ 30 mins
Video 6                 Arno Schmidt-Trucksass  ‘Conducting the Clinical Study’ 30 mins
Video 7                 Marshall Riley                       ‘Protocols; Ramp tests and Constant work rate tests’ 30 mins
Video 8                 Alfred Hager                          ‘Normal values and their pitfalls’ 30 mins
Video 9                 Daniel Dumitrescu             ‘Formatting exercise Test results’ 30 mins
Video 10               Piergiuseppe Agostoni     ‘Cardiac Output Measurements during exercise’ 30 mins

PART 2

Video 11             Piergiuseppe Agostoni       ‘Exercise Testing in Heart Failure’ 30 mins
Video 12             Alfred Hager                           ‘Exercise Testing in Congenital Heart Disease’ 30 mins
Video 13              Joachim Meyer                     ‘Exercise Testing in Pulmonary Disease’ 30 mins
Video 14             Daniel Dumitrescu               ‘Exercise Testing in Pulmonary Vascular Disease’ 30 mins
Video 15              Tim Takken                            ‘Exercise Testing in Children’ 30 mins
Video 16              Denny Levett                         ‘Exercise Testing for Perioperative Risk Assessment’ 30 mins
Video 17              Sandy Jack                               ‘Pre- and rehabilitation concepts in Malignant Disease’ 30 mins
Video 18              Piergiuseppe Agostoni    ‘Cardiac Rehabilitation and CPET’ 30 mins
Video 19              Marshall Riley                    ‘Gas Exchange Patterns in Metabolic Myopathies’ 30 mins
Video 20              Mike Grocott                      ‘Cardiopulmonary Adaptation to High Altitude’ 30 mins
 
+?4 Videos of our Sponsors of 20 mins each.
+1 Video about three of our pioneering and deceased Board members.

Paul Older
Executive Director CPX International Inc
=====================================================================================

Australia is a very large country but the main centre for CPET is in Melbourne where the pioneering work of Dr Older and Dr Hall on preoperative analysis of operative risk was performed. The work still continues but the laboratory at the Western Hospital is now headed up by Dr Simon Frenkel. He is a Respiratory Physician but has a major interest in preoperative CPET. He is strongly supported by Dr Robert Smith, an anaesthetist, who was also involved in the original work.  Dr Hall has moved to Brisbane and we hope to hear from him from time to time.

We get enquiries from many centres on just how we perform our tests on surgical patients. Firstly we do not push the elderly patients to their peak VO2 as we are more interested in the anaerobic threshold. The average age of our patients is 64 and despite thousands of patients being tested we have not had anyone collapse. We have had a few patients develop an SVT but we always stop the test if that occurs. I do not believe that attempting to obtain peakVO2 in surgical patients adds to the study in diagnostic terms. I am aware that some centres find that peakVO2 of greater value in surgical risk assessment. We do not. Either way both the AT and peakVO2 are measures of aerobic capacity.

The average ramp for our patients is 15 watts per minute and most of the tests last about 6 minutes after unloaded cycling. It is very uncommon for us not to obtain the anaerobic threshold but that is not the only thing we examine. The oxygen pulse, the VO2 /work rate relationship and the ventilatory equivalents are also important.

There is an increasing interest in CPET from the surgeons and disappointingly not such an increase in interest by the anaesthetists. There is no doubt that this test has a lot to offer in analysis of operative risk. We have recently had a visitor from the UK working with us and he left very impressed. It is important to combine the CPET with a preoperative assessment clinic staffed by Consultant Anaesthetists.

As we get more queries from around the world I will pass on the information to you.

Try to join ‘CPX International Inc’ and you will get regular updates on papers relevant to CPET.

Dr Paul Older

MD, MB BS, LRCP MRCS, FRCA, FANZCA, FCICM
Executive Director CPX International Inc