Routine screening exercise testing in asymptomatic adults lacks randomized trial data to determine if it reduces the risk for premature mortality or major cardiac morbidity.
Along with coronary artery calcium scanning, ankle-brachial index measurement, and carotid artery ultrasound, exercise electrocardiography has been proposed as a screening tool for asymptomatic subjects thought to be at intermediate risk for developing clinical coronary disease. A wealth of data indicate that exercise testing can be used to assess and refine prognosis, particularly when emphasis is placed on nonelectrocardiographic measures such as exercise capacity, chronotropic response, heart rate recovery, and ventricular ectopy. Nevertheless, randomized trial data on the clinical value of screening exercise testing are absent; that is, it is not known whether a strategy of routine screening exercise testing in selected subjects reduces the risk for premature mortality or major cardiac morbidity. The writing group believes that a large-scale randomized trial of such a strategy should be performed.
Lauer et al. (Wed,) conducted a review in Asymptomatic adults at intermediate risk for clinical coronary disease. Exercise electrocardiography screening was evaluated. Routine screening exercise testing in asymptomatic adults lacks randomized trial data to determine if it reduces the risk for premature mortality or major cardiac morbidity.