Background. Firefighting is one of the most physically demanding occupations and it requires a high cardiorespiratory fitness level.
Pre-duty medical evaluation of firefighters includes fitness testing and assessment of cardiac health to ensure that firefighters meet the minimum physical fitness standard and to ensure that they are not at increased risk of cardiac events. The medical evaluation methods for Swedish firefighters are regulated by the Swedish Work Environment Authority and include a 6 min constant workload treadmill (TM) test for fitness evaluation in which the firefighter wears full smoke diving equipment and a maximal effort exercise electrocardiography test (ExECG) at cycle ergometer (CE) for assessment of cardiac health. Previously, fitness was also evaluated by cycle ergometry.
The standard parameter for evaluation of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is exercise-induced ST depression. In general, exercise testing of asymptomatic low-risk individuals is discouraged due to low sensitivity and specificity for IHD, generating both false-positive and false-negative test results. Heart rate (HR) adjustment of the ST-segment response has been shown to be superior to simple ST depression to evaluate cardiac ischaemia in some populations, but has not been extensively evaluated in an occupational setting.
Methods. We retrospectively analysed a cohort of 774 firefighters who were asymptomatic at the time of the testing.
In paper I, test approval, HR response, and calculated oxygen uptake from TM tests and CE tests for 424 firefighters (44±10 years) were compared.
Paper II methodologically described the process for data extraction, processing, and calculation of ExECG data from a clinical database. Procedures for noise assessment, error checking, and computerized calculation of ST/HR parameters were described.
In paper III, ExECG and medical records of 521 male firefighters (44±10 years) were studied. During 8.4 ± 2.1 years of follow-up, IHD was verified angiographically in 12 subjects. The predictive value of HR-adjusted ST variables (ST/HR index, ST/HR slope, and ST/HR loop) for IHD was evaluated.
In paper IV, subjects with objectively verified IHD were excluded and factors associated with exercise-induced nonischaemic ST depression were studied in the remaining 509 males (46±11 years).
Results. The firefighters had an average maximal exercise capacity of 281 ± 36 W (range 186-467 W) achieved by incremental CE exercise. To enable comparison, the maximal workload was converted to the workload sustainable for 6 min. It was more common to pass the 6 min TM fitness test but to fail the supposedly equivalent CE test rather than vice versa.
Twenty percent of the firefighters developed an ST depression of ≥o.1 mV in at least one lead during exercise and half of the firefighters had a horizontal or downsloping ST depression. While an abnormal ST response associated with an increased risk for IHD only in V4, both an abnormal ST/HR index and an abnormal ST/HR slope associated with IHD in three leads each. Clockwise rotation of the ST/HR loop was infrequent in all precordial leads (1%), but it associated with an increased risk for IHD.
In the subgroup without evidence of coronary artery disease, age and the HR response associated with ST depression, whereas hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, blood pressure response, and exercise capacity did not.
Conclusions. Even though the calculated oxygen uptake was higher for the TM test than for the supposedly equivalent CE test, the higher treadmill approval rate may indicate that the fitness requirement for Swedish firefighters has been lowered by changing the test modality.
Exercise-induced ST depression was common in asymptomatic physically active men, although there were only a few cases of IHD during follow-up. If performing ExECG in asymptomatic, low-risk populations, ST/HR analysis could be given more importance. However, the limited clinical value of ExECG in low-risk populations was emphasised and needs to be reconsidered.
In asymptomatic, physically active men without coronary artery disease, false-positive ST depressions can be partially explained by HR variables rather than by common cardiovascular risk factors and blood pressure response to exercise.