Congestive Heart Failure – Oxygen Uptake Associated to Poor Prognosis

Prolonged oxygen uptake, known as VO2, during moderate exercise has been associated with poor prognosis in congestive heart failure patients.

Prolonged oxygen uptake, known as VO2, during moderate exercise has been associated with poor prognosis in congestive heart failure patients. Dr. Hans Peter Brunner-La Rocca explained the condition in an interview, “VO2 kinetics do not just reflect limitation of peak exercise in congestive heart failure. The underlying cause of limitation may differ and, as a consequence, VO2 kinetics and peak VO2 may be independently related to outcome in heart failure.”Dr. Brunner-La Rocca and a team of researches followed 146 patients with mild-to-moderate congestive heart failure, and during the study 30 patients died, 11 underwent urgent heart transplantation and 32 were hospitalized.The mean response time (MRT) was the biggest predictor of these events with hazard ratios per 10 seconds of 1.65 for survival, 1.72 for transplantation and 1.61 for hospitalization. Dr. Brunner-La Rocca concluded that, “VO2 kinetics may be used to improve prognostic assessment in this critical patient population.”(Source: M.S.W.: ZoeMed: Cardiac Life Centre: 28th August 2003)