Evaluation of exercise performance in patients with valvular heart diseases by means of the workload with bicycle ergometer / 日本心臓血管外科学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

Eighty-three patients with valular heart diseases underwent exercise stress tests with bicycle ergometer and their exercise performances were evaluated by means of the workload they achieved. Twenty eight of them were waiting for surgical therapy at the time of study and 55 were outpatients who had undertaken valvular surgery. They were from 13 to 68 years old (mean 49.3 years). Fifty three patients were male and 30 were female. Thirty six of them were in the state of NYHA functional classification class 1, 35 class 2 and 12 class 3. Workloads and oxygen uptake were measured at anaerobic threshold (AT) and maximal achieved workload (MAX). Measured values of workloads were assessed by the percent attainments of predicted normal values for age, sex, height and weight from the equation which were calculated from the data of 213 sedentary normal Japanese adults. Oxygen uptake was also assessed by the percent attainment of predicted normal value from Posner's equation. Woakloads and oxygen uptake were corelated significantly (<i>p</i><0.01) both at AT and MAX. Workloads differed significantly between the NYHA classes not only at AT but also at MAX (<i>p</i><0.01, <i>p</i><0.01). Ten patients were reassessed more than six months after the operation and revealed significant increases in workload. The differences were more prominent at MAX than at AT.