Patent ID: 8630811

Claim:
A method of pattern recognition for classifying and evaluating the functional status of a patient with chronic disease comprising: determining a plurality of individual variable indexes (IVIs), wherein the value for each IVI is calculated, in part, from cardiopulmonary exercise test measurements gathered from sub-maximal exercise bouts, and wherein the exercise test measurements include Resting PetCO 2 , ΔPetCO 2 , SaO 2 , OUES, V e /VCO 2 slope, and a non-invasive estimate of pulmonary capacitance equal to O 2 pulse×Pet CO 2 ; determining a plurality of weighted IVIs by multiplying each IVI by a weighting value for that IVI; calculating, by a computer system, a multivariable index score (MVI), wherein the MVI is the result of dividing the sum of the plurality of weighted IVIs by the sum of the weighting values for each IVI; classifying said functional status based on the MVI.