O50-1 - Abnormal Blood Pressure Response to Exercise and Exercise Tolerance in Patients with Stable Heart Failure

Abstract

Background: Abnormal blood pressure (BP) response to exercise is often observed and reported to be associated with adverse cardiac events in patients with coronary artery disease. Reduced exercise tolerance is an independent predictor of adverse cardiac events in patient with heart failure (HF), but few data are available regarding the relation between exercise tolerance and abnormal BP response to exercise. Method: A total of 81 patients with stable HF underwent a symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise test. BP was noninvasively measured at an interval of one minute, and considered abnormal when exercise-induced increases in systolic BP were less than 25 mmHg. Exercise tolerance was evaluated with peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2). Result: The peak VO2 was 18.3 ± 4.8 ml/kg/min in all the patients. Abnormal BP response to exercise was observed in 29 patients (36%). There were no significant differences in resting BP and heart rate between the two groups. The peak VO2 was significantly lower in patients with abnormal BP response (15.9 ± 3.7 ml/kg/min) than in patients without abnormal BP response (19.7 ± 4.8 ml/kg/min, P < .05). Conclusions: Abnormal BP response to exercise was associated with reduced exercise tolerance in patients with stable HF. Further study is warranted to examine whether abnormal BP response is associated with adverse cardiac events in patients with stable HF.