[Does obesity have an effect on heart function?].

Cardiac performance was studied in 14 obese but otherwise healthy young subjects during rest and submaximal ergometric exercise by means of Swan Ganz catheters. Cardiac output and stroke volume determined by the thermal dilution method were normal or slightly increased during rest rising on exercise in the usual range. However, mean pulmonary artery and pulmonary wedge pressures were increased above normal values in 50% of the patients during exercise indicating depressed left ventricular function. Patients with normal and abnormal hemodynamic response to exercise could not be separated by clinical findings. Repetition of studies in 11 patients following therapeutic starvation of 2-3 weeks duration revealed a statistically significant fall of pressures in the right atrium, the pulmonary artery and in the pulmonary wedge position during rest and exercise. In the majority of patients a moderate reduction in cardiac output and stroke volume suggested a decrease in preload due to loss of intravascular volume, but in a few instances with unaltered or increased cardiac output improvement of cardiac function had to be considered.