Relationship between exercise capacity and ventilatory equivalent for carbom dioxide (V^^・_E/V^^・_<CO_2>) : evaluation of exercise capacity at low work rate in cardiac patients

With use of cardiopulmonyexercise tests, we sometimes feel difficulty to determine exercise capacity in patients who can not exercise enough or whose anaerobic threshold are not determined precisely. To evaluate exercise capacity in these cardiac patients at low work rate, cardiopulmonary exercise tests were perfomed in 100 patients with stable heart failure and in 70 healthy volunteers. They exercised on a bicycle ergometry until their exhaustion. Patients who had animal pain or ischemic change on ECG during exercise were excluded. According to peak V^^・_<O_2> achieved during eercise, the patients were classified into A, B and C groups following Weber's method : A, peak V^^・_<O_2> ≧21ml/min/kg (n＝13)