Book excerpt: In the last several years, Clinical Exercise Testing has become an increasingly important tool for patient evaluation in clinical medicine due to a growing awareness of the limitations of traditional resting cardiopulmonary measurements. Emphasizing scientific and technological advances and focusing on clinical applications for patient diagnosis and management, this volume provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary review of clinical exercise testing, concentrating on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET). 25 reader-friendly chapters discuss important topics, including the physiologic responses to exercise in normal subjects, in the aged and in various disease states; the set-up of an exercise lab; the methodology and protocols used for clinical exercise testing; and an integrative approach to the interpretation of CPET results. CPET in heart failure, deconditioning, COPD, ILD, pulmonary vascular disease, neuromuscular disease, and asthma is thoroughly discussed. Clinical applications including pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation, heart and lung transplantation evaluation, unexplained exertional dyspnea assessment, evaluation for lung resection and lung volume reduction surgery, and impairment-disability evaluation are also covered in detail. Additional chapters on clinical exercise testing in children, during pregnancy and the postpartum, and in other systemic disorders complete this extensive publication. Written by well-respected experts, this volume will be a valuable resource for a wide audience including pulmonologists, cardiologists, pediatricians, exercise physiologists, rehabilitation specialists, nurse clinician specialists, and respiratory therapists.