The exercise capacity and cardiopulmonary response to progressive dynamic exercise of eight healthy recipients of heart-lung transplants were compared with those of matched recipients of orthotopic cardiac transplants and normal controls. In both transplant groups the maximum workloads were lower than that in the normal group. The transplant recipients had higher pre-exercise heart rates and lower maximum heart rates than the normal controls. Ventilation during submaximal exercise was similar in the heart transplant group and the controls. The heart-lung group had an increased ventilatory response associated with lower end tidal carbon dioxide concentrations. Exercise capacity after combined heart-lung transplantation is similar to that after cardiac transplantation. Transplant recipients have an abnormal heart rate response during exercise related to cardiac denervation. The altered ventilatory response in heart-lung recipients may be the result of pulmonary denervation.
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