Cardiopulmonary exercise test in athletes and coronary diseases|Test cardiopolmonare da sforzo negli atleti e nelle patologie coronariche

he cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) is an important test to evaluate itness and endurance in athletes. Competitive sports represent the most extreme stress to which the body can be exposed. Differently from pathological conditions where the CPET is used to evaluate the limiting factor or to explore some speciic conditions such as dyspnea or exercise intolerance, in athletes it is designed to optimize peak performance and to personalized exercise prescriptions. For sport doctors a deeper understanding on which physiological limiting factors are involved during an exercise test is crucial. Physical ability of an athlete's body is determined by the quality of external breathing, cardiovascular functions and by features of metabolism related to the tissue breathing and transport of substrates. Physiological testing of athletes requires the correct description and evaluation of sports-speciic variables and speciic devices simulating the real sport of athletes have to be used. This short review will summarize the role of CPET in high it athletes, describing the main parameters used (V'O2max, LT) and their limits and the use of the CPET in some speciic conditions to rule out cardiovascular diseases.