부산대학교 도서관

In severe chronic heart failure (CHF) the ventilatory cost of CO.sub.2 elimination during exercise (VE/VCO .sub.2) is increased, suggesting ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) mismatch. The relationship of exercise VE/VCO .sub.2 regression slopem to deadspace ventilation was studied in 15 patients with CHF who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and arterial blood gas monitoring. Regional lung ventilation and perfusion was studied, [using.sup.133]xenon, at rest and peak exercise in a further group of 10 CHF patients and in five normal subjects. VE/VCO .sub.2 slopem correlated well with deadspace ventilation at peak exercise in the 15 patients with CHF. We therefore used exercise VE/VCO .sub.2 slopem to categorize CHF patients [undergoing.sup.133]xenon imaging into groups with increased (slopem>36) or normal (slopem These findings suggest that the increased ventilatory cost of CO.sub.2 elimination found in certain patients with CHF is related to inability to coordinate and optimise the relative distribution of lung perfusion with respect to ventilation during exercise.