Gender and age normalization and ventilation efficiency during exercise in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction

摘要

Ventilation vs. carbon dioxide production (VE/VCO ) is among the strongest cardiopulmonary exercise testing prognostic parameters in heart failure (HF). It is usually reported as an absolute value. The current definition of normal VE/VCO slope values is inadequate, since it was built from small groups of subjects with a particularly limited number of women and elderly. We aimed to define VE/VCO slope prediction formulas in a sizable population and to test whether the prognostic power of VE/VCO slope in HF was different if expressed as a percentage of the predicted value or as an absolute value.