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Invited Commentary
July 23, 2012

Time for a 6-Minute Walk?Comment on “Six-Minute Walk Test as a Prognostic Tool in Stable Coronary Heart Disease”

Author Affiliations

Author Affiliation: Department of Medicine, Syracuse Preventive Cardiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse.

Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(14):1102-1103. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.2530

In this issue of the Archives, Beatty and colleagues1 demonstrate that the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) provided, at low cost, very useful prognostic information in ambulatory patients with coronary heart disease. In 556 patients with stable coronary heart disease followed up for 8 years, cardiovascular events (eg, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and death) occurred in 218 (39.2%). Patients in the lowest quartile of 6MWT distance (87-419 m) had 4 times the rate of cardiovascular events as those in the highest quartile (544-837 m) (P < .001). Each SD decrease in 6MWT distance (104 m) was associated with a 55% higher rate of cardiovascular events.

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