Mayo Clnic studys finds stress test abnormalities reveal more than just cardiovascular risks

ROCHESTER, Minn. – An exercise stress test may help find more medical problems than previously thought.

New findings published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings say exercise test abnormalities, such as low functional aerobic capacity, predicted non-cardiovascular causes of death such as cancer in addition to cardiovascular-related deaths.  The study looked at 13,382 patients who had no baseline cardiovascular issues or other serious diseases and who had completed exercise tests at Mayo Clinic between 1993 and 2010, then were followed closely for a median period of 12.7 years.

“In our exercise testing cohort, non-cardiovascular deaths were more frequently observed than cardiovascular deaths,” says Thomas Allison, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of Mayo Clinic’s Integrated Stress Testing Center and the study’s senior author.  “Though this was a cardiac stress test, we found that cancer was the leading cause of death, at 38%, whereas only 19% of deaths were cardiovascular. Exercise test results including low exercise capacity, low peak heart rate, and a slow recovery of the heart rate after exercise test were associated with increased mortality.”

Mayo Clinic says the study suggests doctors should focus not only on ECG results but on data in the exercise test results such as low functional aerobic capacity, low chronotropic index and abnormal heart rate recovery. Patients should be encouraged to increase their physical activity if these results are atypical, even if the ECG results show no significant cardiovascular-related risk.