Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is a dynamic and objective investigation that studies the responses of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and skeletal muscular systems to exercise stress in an integrated way.

This is achieved by the measuring gas exchange, respiratory rate and volume, heart rate and ECG parameters, BP, and oxygen saturation (Figure 1.1) whilst a patient undertakes exercise using an ergometer (a device that is used to quantify physical performance by providing a known workload).