Cardiopulmonary exercise testing: A contemporary and versatile clinical tool.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) helps in detecting disorders of the cardiovascular, pulmonary, and skeletal muscle systems. It has a class I (indicated) recommendation from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association for evaluating exertional dyspnea of uncertain cause and for evaluating cardiac patients being considered for heart transplant. Advances in hardware and software and ease of use have brought its application into the clinical arena to the point that providers should become familiar with it and consider it earlier in the evaluation of their patients.