Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2931290 International Journal of Cardiology 2011 5 Pages PDF
Abstract

BackgroundSix minute walking test (6-MWT) may serve as a reproducible test for assessing exercise capacity in heart failure (HF) patients and can be clinically predicted. We aimed in this study to ascertain if global markers of ventricular asynchrony can predict 6MWT distance in a group of patients with HF and left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) < 45%.Methods and resultsThis study included 77 consecutive patients (60 ± 12 years) with stable HF. LV end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions, shortening fraction (SF), EF, myocardial velocities, t-IVT, and Tei index were measured, as well as 6-MWT distance.Patients with limited exercise performance (≤ 300 m) had lower SF (p = 0.02) and EF (p = 0.017), longer t-IVT (p = 0.001), higher Tei index (p = 0.002) and higher E/E′ ratio (p < 0.001) compared with good performance patients. In multivariate analysis, only E/E′ ratio [0.800 (0.665–0.961), p = 0.017], and t-IVT [0.769 (0.619–0.955), p = 0.018] independently predicted poor exercise performance.ConclusionsIn heart failure patients, the higher the filling pressures and the more asynchronous the left ventricle, the poorer is the patient's exercise capacity. These findings highlight specific LV functional disturbances that should be targeted for better optimization of medical and/or electrical therapy.

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