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. 2009 Feb 3;20(9):773–777. doi: 10.1002/clc.4960200912

Relationship between exercise hyperpnea, hemodynamics, and blood gases before and during glyceryl trinitrate infusion in patients with exercise‐induced elevation of pulmonary artery wedge pressure

Lars H Jørgensen 1,✉, Erik Thaulow 1, Harald E Refsum 1
PMCID: PMC6656243  PMID: 9294669

Abstract

Background: The mechanisms underlying the excessive ventilatory response to exercise in patients with cardiac failure are still not fully understood.

Hypothesis: This study was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms behind exercise hyperpnea in patients with exercise‐induced left ventricular dysfunction.

Methods: In 18 patients, aged 57–82 years, all with atherosclerotic lumbar aorta aneurysm and pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP) >25 mmHg during supine exercise, ventilation (V), central hemodynamics, and arterial and venous blood gases were examined during supine rest and exercise, before and during infusion of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN).

Results: Before GTN, exercise PAWP was 32.2 ± 6.1 mmHg and V/V O2 was 33.8 ± 7.7 1/1 (130% of predicted). With GTN, exercise PAWP was markedly reduced to 15.3 ± 3.8 mmHg (p < 0.001), whereas V/V O2 was only marginally reduced to 32.3 ± 3.0 1/1 (124% of predicted) (p<0.05). Exercise physiologic dead space (VD/VT) declined from 0.31 ± 0.16 to 0.26 ± 0.17 (p<0.05), while PaCO2 was reduced from 5.20 ± 0.31 to 5.10 ± 0.24 kPa (p < 0.05). PvO2 and cardiac output (CO), however, were unchanged, below normal.

Conclusion: The data show that exercise‐induced hyperpnea was not substantially reduced by rapid normalization of PAWP and could not be related to preservation of normal PaCO2 in the presence of high VD/VT. The persistence of exercise hyperpnea and reduced PvO2 after GTN is consistent with augmented ventilatory stimuli from hypoxia‐induced metabolic abnormalities in the skeletal muscles, or/and persistently reduced CO, due to changes in the integrated superior command of ventilation and circulation.

Keywords: exercise hyperpnea, hemodynamics, blood gases, left heart failure, nitroglycerin

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