A cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) is ideally suited to quantify exercise tolerance and evaluate the pathophysiological mechanism(s) of dyspnea and exercise limitation in people with chronic respiratory disease. Although there are several statements on CPET and many outstanding resources detailing the cardiorespiratory and perceptual responses to exercise, limited information is available to support the health care provider in conducting a practical CPET evaluation. This article provides the health care provider with practical and timely information on how to use CPET data to understand dyspnea and exercise intolerance in people with chronic respiratory diseases. Information on CPET protocol, as well as how to evaluate maximal patient effort, peak rate of oxygen consumption, ventilatory demand, pulmonary gas exchange, ventilatory reserve, operating lung volumes, and exertional dyspnea, is presented. Two case examples are also described to highlight how these parameters are evaluated to provide a clinical interpretation of CPET data.

心肺运动测试 (CPET) 非常适合量化运动耐量并评估慢性呼吸系统疾病患者呼吸困难和运动受限的病理生理机制。尽管有一些关于 CPET 的声明和许多优秀的资源详细说明了对运动的心肺和知觉反应，但可用于支持医疗保健提供者进行实际 CPET 评估的信息有限。本文为医疗保健提供者提供了有关如何使用 CPET 数据了解慢性呼吸道疾病患者的呼吸困难和运动不耐受的实用且及时的信息。有关 CPET 方案的信息，以及如何评估患者最大努力、耗氧量峰值、通气需求、肺气体交换、通气储备、介绍了操作肺容量和劳力性呼吸困难。还描述了两个案例，以突出如何评估这些参数以提供 CPET 数据的临床解释。