A cardiopulmonary exercise evaluation is conducted on a patient before participation in pulmo-nary rehabilitation for what purposes?

1. To quantify the patient's baseline exercise capacity
2. To develop an exercise prescription (including target heart rate)
3. To determine how much desaturation occurs with exercise
a. 2 and 3 only
b. 1, 2, and 3
c. 1 and 2 only
d. 1 and 3 only

ANS: B
The cardiopulmonary exercise evaluation serves two key purposes in pulmonary rehabilitation. First, it quantifies the patient's initial exercise capacity. This provides the basis for the exercise prescription (including setting a target heart rate) and also yields the baseline data for assessing a patient's progress over time. In addition, the evaluation helps to determine the degree of hy-poxemia or desaturation that can occur with exercise.