Cardiovascular Response to Treadmill Testing in Parkinson Disease

Purpose: Exercise has been recommended as a way to maintain quality of life in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). Experiments examining the cardiovascular response to exercise, however, have yielded controversial results. This study was designed to determine if there is any difference in vital signs and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) between a group of individuals (50-80 years old) with PD and a comparison group of healthy individuals during exercise on a treadmill.

Methods: Twenty seven volunteers (16 with PD and 11 healthy) participated in this study. Subjects with PD were divided into 2 groups; one that reached target heart rate and one that failed to reach it. In this study, heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (BP), and the RPE were measured during a Modified Bruce Protocol. We hypothesized that treadmill testing would result in differences between individuals with PD and healthy subjects when HR and systolic BP were compared at submaximal exercise (defined as Stage 2 of the Modified Bruce Protocol) and at peak exercise (defined as 85% of age predicted target heart rate).

Results: During submaximal exercise, no significant differences were found between the PD group and the control group for HR, BP, or RPE. At peak exercise, one half of the subjects with PD exhibited blunted cardiovascular responses, despite reaching a comparable intensity of exercise during a Modified Bruce Protocol.

Conclusions: Although cardiovascular responses to exercise on a treadmill appear similar between individuals with PD and controls at lower levels of exercise, half the subjects with PD in the present study displayed abnormal cardiovascular responses at higher exercise intensities. Administering an exercise stress test will illustrate the expected cardiovascular responses for each individual, therefore guiding exercise prescription.