Highlights
- •6MST is able to discriminate between the different levels of exercise capacity.
- •6MST strongly correlates to 6MWT in patients with sarcoidosis.
- •6MST is more physically demanding than 6MWT.
- •6MST is a valid alternative test for measuring functional exercise capacity.
Abstract
Background
Researchers and clinicians may benefit from alternative tests that do not require
large physical spaces or corridors for simply evaluating functional exercise capacity
in the clinical practice.
Objective
Aim of this study was to investigate whether six-minute stepper test (6MST) is a valid
tool for measuring functional exercise capacity in patients with sarcoidosis.
Methods
Thirty-six patients with sarcoidosis and 18 healthy controls were evaluated with 6MST
and six-minute walk test (6MWT). Patients performed 6MST twice. Cardiovascular and
symptom responses to tests including heart rate, blood pressure, SpO2, levels of dyspnea and fatigue were recorded.
Results
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed an area under the
ROC curve of 0.74 for 6MST in identifying the patients and controls, indicating acceptable
discriminative ability. Patients performed significantly worse in 6MST compared to
controls (277±54 vs 349±87 steps; p<0.001). 6MST was able to explain 66% of variance in 6MWT (p<0.001), and there was a strong relationship between 6MWT and 6MST (r = 0.812). SpO2 responses to tests were similar, however, 6MST generated more severe heart rate,
dyspnea and fatigue responses. Intraclass correlation coefficient calculated for initial
and retest scores of 6MST was 0.990, indicating excellent test-retest reliability.
However, there was a systematical improvement (∼4%) in retest 6MST scores.
Conclusions
6MST is a valid and reliable alternative test for measuring functional exercise capacity
in sarcoidosis. 6MST may also help better testing the upper limits of cardiac system
and physical endurance as it is more physically demanding than 6MWT.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 13, 2022
Accepted:
December 6,
2022
Received in revised form:
December 6,
2022
Received:
August 31,
2022
Footnotes
✰This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Izmir Bakircay University (Approval number: 2021/467) and conducted in accordance with Helsinki Declaration.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
