Abstract
This report surveys the techniques, safety and litigation experience of 170,000 exercise stress tests performed in 73 medical centers. Procedures and results varied but certain patterns emerged: (1) A medical history was required before testing in 89% of centers, a physical examination in 97%, and a resting electrocardiogram in 57%. (2) Active cardiac disease precluded testing. (3) Informed consent was sought in 75% and was required in written form in 30%. (4) Specific test-interruption criteria involved symptoms, signs, and ECG findings. (5) Progressive workloads were employed by 73%. (6) Full resuscitation facilities were available. (7) The mortality was about 1 per 10,000 tests (16 per 170,000). (8) Combined mortalitymorbidity was about 4 per 10,000 tests. (9) Mortality was not clearly related to type of test. (10) Successful litigation, with an out-of-court settlement was reported in one instance.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1061-1066 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |
| Volume | 217 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 23 1971 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:ThisreportwassponsoredbytheTech¬ nical Group on Exercise Electrocardiogra- phyandsupportedbytheHeartDisease andStrokeControlProgram,Public Health Service (contract grant PH 86-68- 170,TechnicalGrouponExerciseElectro- cardiography).Itsothermemberswere GunnarBlomquist,RobertBruce,Samuel FoxIII,AlvinFreiman,WilliamHaskell, LarryJackson,EugeneLepeschkin,Rob¬ ertE.Mason,PenttiRautaharjuandL. ThomasSheffield. Partial support was also giventhroughPublicHealthServicegrant HE-06314totheUniversityofMinnesota CardiovascularClinicalResearchPro¬