title: Cardiac function during graded bicycle exercise: Doppler-echocardiographic findings in normal subjects and heart transplant recipients.
abstract: Orthotopic heart transplantation results in altered atrial anatomy and denervation of the donor heart. To assess the impact of these sequelae on left ventricular filling and systolic performance, 16 heart transplant recipients and 10 normal controls were evaluated by Doppler echocardiography at rest and during graded bicycle exercise. Global and regional systolic ventricular allograft function was normal at rest and during exercise. Resting Doppler profiles demonstrated diminished atrial contribution to ventricular filling in transplant recipients. The response to dynamic exercise was different in both groups; controls increased heart rate, while mitral time-velocity integral was unchanged. Heart transplant recipients, in contrast, showed a blunted heart rate response and increased time-velocity integral. Atrial contribution to ventricular filling was not augmented during exercise as in normal controls. Alterations in transmitral flow profiles in heart transplant recipients do not necessarily reflect ventricular myocardial damage, but may be related to impaired atrial function.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik, Klinikum Innenstadt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Spes
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Schnaack
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Theisen
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Angermann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology