How was the safety rule of not assessing a client high blood pressure and pulse rate on the EPIC determined?
The resting blood pressure and heart rate values are taken from the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for non-physician supervised tests. They are presented in the document from the ACSM that describes their guidelines. I believe the most recent version of this document is (c) 1993. I don’t have an address for them, but I would expect they are on the Web. In our clinic at the University, I find that approximately 10 to 15 percent of our referrals are unable to be tested because their blood pressure is too high. This is unfortunate, but considering that the risk for a cardiac event or stroke is significant for people who are hypertension performing a physically demanding task, we decided to integrate this restriction as a standard part of the EPIC Lift Capacity protocol. The ACSM considers this level of pre-test screening a necessary safety restriction, as do we. Of course, how the case is handled when an evaluation cannot be conducted is crucial. In the first place, I make
