Characteristics of patients with a relatively greater minimum VE/VCO2 against peak VO2% and impaired exercise tolerance

摘要

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) is used to evaluate functional capacity and assess prognosis in cardiac patients. Ventilatory efficiency (VE/VCO2) reflects ventilation-perfusion mismatch; the minimum VE/VCO2 value (minVE/VCO2) is representative of pulmonary arterial blood flow in individuals without pulmonary disease. Usually, minVE/VCO2 has a strong relationship with the peak oxygen uptake (VO2), but dissociation can occur. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between minVE/VCO2 and predicted peak VO2 (peak VO2%) and evaluated the parameters associated with a discrepancy between these two parameters.