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Does symptom‐limited cycle exercise cause low frequency diaphragm fatigue in patients with heart failure?
Author(s) -
Dayer Mark J.,
Hopkinson Nicholas S.,
Ross Ewen T.,
Jonville Sophie,
Sharshar Tarek,
Kearney Mark,
Moxham John,
Polkey Michael I.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of heart failure
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.149
H-Index - 133
eISSN - 1879-0844
pISSN - 1388-9842
DOI - 10.1016/j.ejheart.2005.04.009
Subject(s) - medicine , contractility , heart failure , cardiology , ejection fraction , diaphragm (acoustics) , exercise intolerance , muscle fatigue , electromyography , physical medicine and rehabilitation , physics , acoustics , loudspeaker
Background: Reduced diaphragm contractility occurs in some healthy subjects when they exercise to exhaustion. This indicates low frequency fatigue, which may contribute to task failure. We hypothesised that patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) might be especially vulnerable to the development of low frequency diaphragm fatigue after exhaustive exercise. Aims: To study the effect of exhaustive incremental cycle exercise on diaphragm contractility in patients with CHF. Methods: 12 patients with CHF with an ejection fraction of 36.5±7.3% and 12 healthy age‐matched control subjects performed an incremental cycle test to exhaustion. The unpotentiated twitch transdiaphragmatic pressure (twitch Pdi) in response to bilateral anterolateral magnetic phrenic nerve stimulation (BAMPS) was measured before and after exercise. Results: Twitch Pdi at baseline was 20.2±6.7 cmH 2 O in the CHF group and 20.3±3 cmH 2 O in the controls ( p =0.957). 25 and 35 min post exercise the values were 19.9±5.4 and 20.0±5.1 cmH 2 O in the CHF group and 20.6±4.3 and 21.2±3.4 cmH 2 O in the control group; neither change was significant ( F (2,27)=0.007, p =0.993; F (2,33)=0.144, p =0.866, respectively). Conclusion: When patients with CHF cycle to exhaustion, low frequency fatigue of the diaphragm does not occur, and this is unlikely to be an important factor limiting exercise capacity of such patients.