PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marzena Zurek
AU  - Ugo Corrà
AU  - Massimo F. Piepoli
AU  - Ronald K. Binder
AU  - Hugo Saner
AU  - Jean-Paul Schmid
TI  - Exercise training reverses exertional oscillatory ventilation in heart failure patients
AID  - 10.1183/09031936.00167011
DP  - 2012 Jan 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - erj01670-2011
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2012/03/08/09031936.00167011.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2012/03/08/09031936.00167011.full
AB  - Exertional oscillatory ventilation (EOV) is an ominous prognostic sign in chronic heart failure (CHF), but little is known about the success of specific therapeutic interventions.To study the impact of an exercise training on exercise capacity and cardiopulmonary adaptation in stable CHF patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and EOV.96 stable CHF patients with EOV were included in a retrospective analysis (52 training vs. 44 controls). EOV was defined as follows: (1) ≥3 oscillatory fluctuations in VE during exercise; (2) regular oscillations; (3) minimal average ventilation amplitude ≥5 litres.EOV disappeared in 37/52 (71.2%) patients after training but only in 1/44 (2.3%) without training (p<0.001). The decrease of EOV amplitude correlated with changes in PETCO2 (r= -0.60, p<0.001) at the respiratory compensation point (RCP) and VE/VCO2 slope (r=0.50, p<0.001). Training significantly improved resting values of breathing frequency (BF), ventilation (VE), tidal volume (VT) and VE/VCO2 ratio. During exercise, VE and VT reached significantly higher values at the peak, while BF and VE/VCO2 ratio were significantly lower at submaximal exercise. No change was noted in the control group.Exercise training leads to a significant decrease of EOV and improves ventilatory efficiency in patients with stable CHF.