Is the elevated slope relating ventilation to carbon dioxide production in chronic heart failure a consequence of slow metabolic gas kinetics?

OBJECTIVE: Patients with heart failure have slow metabolic gas exchange kinetics, which may contribute to the elevated slope of the relationship between ventilation and carbon dioxide production (Ve/Vco(2) slope).
SETTING: A tertiary referral centre for cardiology.
SUBJECTS: Eleven patients with stable chronic heart failure and 11 age-matched controls.
DESIGN: Each subject underwent maximal bicycle-based peak exercise testing with metabolic gas exchange analysis and three further repeated tests at 15%, 25% and 50% of the load achieved at peak exercise. The ventilation and carbon dioxide production from each of these steady-state tests was used to re-calculate the Ve/Vco(2) slope and compared with the Ve/Vco(2) slope derived from the maximal test.
RESULTS: Peak oxygen consumption [mean (S.D.)] was lower in heart failure patients [18.2 (4.0) vs. 31.2 (6.3) ml/kg per min; P<0.001] than in controls. The Ve/Vco(2) slope was steeper in patients than controls [32.7 (8.3) vs. 27.1 (1.6); P<0.05]. There was no difference between the Ve/Vco(2) slope reconstructed from the three steady state tests and resting data and that gained from the maximal test [35.3 (7.8) vs. 25.9 (3.2); P=0.43].
CONCLUSIONS: The elevated slope of the relationship between ventilation and carbon dioxide production is not a consequence of the short stages of a standard incremental exercise test combined with delayed metabolic gas kinetics in heart failure patients.