The new normal: CPET findings in patients aged 80 years and older

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is an established method for the objective assessment of perioperative fitness for major surgery. The proportion of patients of advanced age undergoing these complex procedures is increasing in line with an ageing population. The physiological and functional decline that occurs with ageing inevitably impacts CPET performance, whilst interpretation is limited by the available literature surrounding CPET testing in elderly patients. This retrospective cohort analysis of 677 CPET tests in patients aged 80 or older aimed to characterise normal CPET results in our patient population at advanced age. We sought to compare our population to existing predictive algorithms and use this data to define a population-based model of normal CPET testing parameters within this older patient group.