TY - JOUR T1 - The clinical relevance of heart rate increase in the interpretation of six-minute walk test in pulmonary hypertension JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 40 IS - Suppl 56 SP - P3918 AU - Gabor Kovacs AU - Christina Stöckl AU - Alexander Avian AU - Xhylsime Kqiku AU - Vasile Foris AU - Maria Tscherner AU - Horst Olschewski Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P3918.abstract N2 - Background: Six-minute walk test (6MWT) is an important prognostic marker in pulmonary hypertension (PH). We hypothesized that clinical improvement might not only be characterized by an increased walk distance but also by changes in Borg dyspnea score (BDS) and heart rate.Patients and Methods: Patients with PH and subjects without PH but with abnormal exercise-induced pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) increase were included. Each patient performed a 6MWT with “normal”, “less than normal” and “more than normal” effort.Results: 23 patients with PH (n=11pulmonary arterial hypertension, n=10 chronic thromboembolic PH, n=2 other; mean PAP: 40±12mmHg) and 6 subjects with abnormal exercise-induced PAP increase (resting mean PAP: 16±4mmHg) participated. 6MWT were 482±98, 447±80 and 402±82m in the walks with “more than normal”, “normal” and “less than normal” effort (472±104 vs 437±84 vs 392±84m in PH patients). The respective BDS and heart rate increase was 3.2±1.5, 2.0±1.2 and 0.7±0.9, and 38±16, 31±14 and 23±14 min-1 (3.0±1.4, 2.0±1.3 and 0.8±0.9, and 40±16 vs 34±13 vs 23±15 min-1 in PH patients). The difference in walk distance between “less than normal” and “more than normal” tests was associated with the difference in heart rate increase during the test (p=0.001, r=0.61 in all subjects; p<0.001, r=0.76 in PH patients). On average, an 80m increase in 6MWT was associated with an additional 15 min-1 heart rate increase. Between the BDS and 6MWT there was no significant correlation.Conclusion: Based on our pilot study, heart rate may be suitable to assess the effort level of subjects and may be incorporated to refine 6MWT in the follow-up of PH patients. ER -