The body weight-walking distance product as a superior parameter in determining the VO2 on-kinetics in coronary artery disease

Background The 6-minute walk test distance is frequently used to assess functional capacity of cardiac disease population. Nevertheless, anthropometric differences can confound or misestimate performance, which highlights the need for new parameters. This study aims to investigate the potential of the body weight-walking distance product (D.W), compared to 6-minute walk test distance, to predict exercise capacity measured by VO 2 on-kinetics in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.Methods Cross-section study in a tertiary-care reference institution. Forty-six participants with multiarterial CAD with and without left ventricular dysfunction underwent a 6-minute walk test with simultaneous use of mobile telemetric cardiopulmonary monitoring to evaluate oxygen uptake (VO 2 ) on-kinetics and other cardiorespiratory responses.Results Perceived effort Borg for lower limb fatigue was only correlated with the D.W (p=0.007). The percent-predicted and actual distance were only modestly to moderately correlated with VO 2 on-kinetics (p<0.05). All the associations of VO 2 on-kinetics parameters were improved by showing a stronger correlation to the D.W (p<0.0001), which also had a larger effect size to identify differences between coronary disease patients compared to distance ( d =1.32 vs d =0.84).Conclusion The D.W demonstrates potential as a measure superior to the distance in determining VO 2 on-kinetics in participants with CAD with and without left ventricular dysfunction.