Exercise Capacity　– Just a Powerful Prognostic Predictor, or a Potential Therapeutic Target in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure? –

tor in patients with chronic HF, 1,3-7 but only a few prognostic for have incorporated a measure of exercise capacity as a component. 1,3-5Specifically, the model by Frankenstein et al 3 incorporated the 6-min walk distance (6MWD), the "HF and A Controlled Trial Investigating Outcomes of Exercise TraiNing" (HF-ACTION) model used duration in an exercise test, 4 and the HF Survival Score (HFSS) and Metabolic Exercise Cardiac and Kidney Index (MECKI) score 5 incorporated peak oxygen uptake (V ˙O2).Of these, the MECKI score is unique because it incorporates variables in the cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX), such as peak V ˙O2 (% of the predicted value) and the slope of the relation between minute ventilation and carbon dioxide Prognostic Prediction Models in Heart Failure (HF) HF is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in cardiac patients, and therefore, predicting the prognosis of patients with HF is critically important for physicians when they stratify or counsel a patient to make therapeutic decisions.To date, many prognostic prediction models have been proposed and validated in patients with chronic HF. 1-5 Article p 2608Exercise capacity, though measured by different methods and expressed in various variables, has been shown in many studies to be an independent and powerful prognostic predic-