TY - JOUR T1 - Ventilatory response to exercise in patients with heart failure and COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P5147 AU - Paola Gargiulo AU - Anna Apostolo AU - Maurizio Bussotti AU - Erica Gondoni AU - Giovanni Marchese AU - Mattia Internullo AU - Matteo Bonini AU - Paolo Palange AU - Piergiuseppe Agostoni Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P5147.abstract N2 - Background: Ventilatory response to exercise in patients with coexisting heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is hardly predictable: there is an out-of-proportion increase of ventilation in HF, while the rise of ventilation is blunted in COPD. The ventilation (VE) behaviour during exercise is defined by its relation with carbon dioxide production (VCO2), according to a linear relationship (VE=aVCO2+b), where “a” is the slope, commonly used to define ventilatory efficiency, and “b” is the intercept on VE axis (VEYint), corresponding to dead space ventilation.This study aimed to evaluate the ventilatory response to exercise in patients with HF and COPD assessing the slope and the VEYint of VE vs VCO2 in COPD+HF, COPD, HF, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients and in healthy controls.Methods: Inclusion criteria were: EF≤40% and FEV1/FVC<0.70% for COPD+HF patients, EF≤40% and FEV1/FVC>0.70% for HF patients, preserved EF and FEV1/FVC<0.70% for COPD patients. All patients performed spirometry and an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test on cycloergometer.Results: This is a prospective, multicenter study that enrolled 355 patients (79 COPD+HF, 78 HF, 74 COPD, 57 PAH patients and 67 healthy subjects). Results are shown in table I.View this table:Table I: Study resultsConclusion: VEYint is elevated in COPD+HF and COPD patients, but not in HF, PAH and healthy subjects, regardless of the slope of VE vs VCO2. ER -