Document Detail


The patient's motivation during bicycle stress ECG test is dependent on the investigator's sex in male patients.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  18597870     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The exercise electrocardiogram is a commonly used non-invasive method for detection of electrocardiogram (ECG) changes secondary to myocardial ischemia. Studies showed the importance of the patient's motivation to reach the estimated submaximal heart rate. The purpose of this study was to test whether the patient's motivation is dependent on the investigator's sex. We included 1170 patients (in-hospital patients and out-clinic patients; 63.5% male, 36.5% female) in this study. Stress test data (stationary bicycle with gradually increasing intensity) were collected retrospectively: patient's age, sex, maximal power stage, ECG-abnormalities, angina pectoris, and attending physician's sex. Male patients achieved a higher power stage than their female counterparts (126.5+/-47.7 W vs. 89.7+/-30.4 W). When male patients were supervised by a female doctor they reached higher maximum power stages (136.6+/-53.5 W vs. 121.6+/-43.3 W; p=0,001), more often the submaximal heart rate (47.9% vs. 38.3%; p=0.02) but complained less frequent about angina pectoris (5.6% vs. 17.3%). In contrast, none of these parameters was dependent on the attending physician's sex in female patients. The attending physician's sex influences the maximum exercise ability and the incidence of complaints during bicycle stress in male patients but not in females. We would speculate that men try to impress women with physical strength and try to dissimulate physical discomfort or pain. This could possibly influence the validity of such non-invasive methods with exercise dependent detection of myocardial ischemia.
Authors:
Christian Jung; Markus Ferrari; Bjoern Goebel; Hans R Figulla
Publication Detail:
Type:  Comparative Study; Letter     Date:  2008-07-01
Journal Detail:
Title:  International journal of cardiology     Volume:  136     ISSN:  1874-1754     ISO Abbreviation:  Int. J. Cardiol.     Publication Date:  2009 Aug 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-08-04     Completed Date:  2009-10-21     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8200291     Medline TA:  Int J Cardiol     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  348-51     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Friedrich-Schiller-University, Clinic of Internal Medicine I, Jena, Germany. christian.jung@med.uni-jena.de
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aged
Electrocardiography / psychology*,  standards
Exercise Test / psychology*,  standards
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation*
Myocardial Ischemia / diagnosis*
Physicians, Women*
Reproducibility of Results

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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