Key result
HFpEF links to limited exercise ventilatory reserve, driven by smaller lung capacity and upper body adiposity.
Why the study?
Patients with HFpEF exhibit a tachypneic breathing strategy during exercise, but whether they have limited ventilatory reserve compared with controls and whether greater upper body adiposity contributes remain unknown.
Do patients with HFpEF have limited ventilatory reserve compared with control patients during exercise, and does greater upper body adiposity contribute to this limitation?
Observational (n=35)
Do patients with HFpEF have limited ventilatory reserve compared with control patients during exercise, and does greater upper body adiposity contribute to this limitation?
Patients with HFpEF have limited ventilatory reserve during exercise, which is partly driven by smaller lung capacity associated with greater upper body adiposity.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May refine HFpEF exercise testing interpretation; hypothesis-generating for adiposity-targeted interventions.
BACKGROUND: Patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) exhibit a tachypneic breathing strategy during exercise. Patients with HFpEF have pulmonary system alterations that may contribute to the breathing strategy in HFpEF. RESEARCH QUESTION: Do patients with HFpEF have limited ventilatory reserve compared with control patients during exercise? Furthermore, does greater upper body adiposity contribute to the lower ventilatory reserves in HFpEF? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Patients with HFpEF (n = 16; mean age ± SD, 70 ± 8 years) and control patients (n = 19; mean age ± SD, 69 ± 8 years) performed incremental cycling to volitional exhaustion. Trunk percent fat was quantified with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Inspiratory capacity, inspiratory and expiratory reserve volumes, and ventilatory variables were compared between groups at rest and during exercise at 40 W and peak oxygen uptake. INTERPRETATION: These findings demonstrate that patients with HFpEF have limited ventilatory reserve during exercise, in part due to their smaller lung capacity. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the greater distribution of upper body adiposity in HFpEF is an important contributor to the smaller lung capacity for these patients.
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Cifci et al. (2025) conducted an observational in Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (n=35). Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction vs. Control patients was evaluated on Ventilatory reserve during exercise. Patients with HFpEF had limited ventilatory reserve during exercise compared to controls, partly due to smaller lung capacity and greater upper body adiposity.
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