Original article
Exercise cardiac power and the risk of heart failure in men: A population-based follow-up study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2020.02.008Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Our study shows that exercize cardiac power (ECP) may provide prognostic information concerning heart failure risk prediction despite taking into account established risk factors, such as smoking, lipids, hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes.

  • This study shows that significant risk of heart failure was observed in men with the lowest level of ECP. A continuous increase in ECP (3.16 mL/mmHg) corresponds to 28% decrease in the risk for heart failure in these men.

  • Our study indicates that ECP may provide a valuable tool for the risk prediction of heart failure in the general population, although further studies are needed.

Abstract

Background

Little is known about exercise cardiac power (ECP), defined as the ratio of directly measured maximal oxygen uptake with peak systolic blood pressure during exercise, on heart failure (HF) risk. We examined the association of ECP and the risk of HF.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study of 2351 men from eastern Finland. The average time to follow-up was 25 years. Participants participated at baseline in an exercise stress test. A total of 313 cases of HF occurred.

Results

Men with low ECP (<9.84 mL/mmHg, the lowest quartile) had a 2.37-fold (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.68−3.35, p < 0.0001) hazards ratio of HF as compared with men with high ECP (>13.92 mL/mmHg, the highest quartile), after adjusting for age. Low ECP was associated with a 1.96-fold risk (95%CI: 1.38−2.78, p < 0.001) of HF after additional adjustment for conventional risk factors. After further adjustment for left ventricular hypertrophy, the results hardly changed (hazards ratio = 1.87, 95%CI: 1.31−2.66, p < 0.001). One SD increase in ECP (3.16 mL/mmHg) was associated with a decreased risk of HF by 28% (95%CI: 17%−37%).

Conclusion

ECP provides a noninvasive and easily available measure from cardiopulmonary exercise tests in predicting HF. However, ECP did not provide additional value over maximal oxygen uptake.

Keywords

Exercise cardiac power
Heart failure
Men

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Peer review under the responsibility of Shanghai University of Sports.