Oxygen uptake efficiency slope and chronotropic incompetence in chronic heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Introduction: Oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) and chronotropic index (CRI) are measures of cardiorespiratory reserve and chronotropic incompetence, but no direct comparison of OUES and CRI in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic heart failure (CHF) has been done.

Aim: To compare OUES and CRI in CHF and COPD patients.

Patients: Fifty-one subjects divided in three groups--CHF group (n=17) (NYHA II and III functional class), COPD group (n=17) (FEV1% = 49.

Association between angiographic coronary stenosis morphology and acute coronary syndrome manifestation in patients with ischemic heart disease.

Aim: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) often show complex morphology of coronary stenosis at angiography. In the present study we evaluated the association between different clinical forms of manifestation of acute coronary syndrome and the angiographic morphological patterns of coronary stenosis.

Patients And Methods: A total of 112 patients with angiographically verified single vessel coronary artery disease were divided into two groups: a control group of 44 patients with simple coronary stenosis at angiography and a study group of 66 patients with complex coronary stenosis.

Cardiovascular and dyspnea response to six-minute and shuttle walk tests in COPD patients.

Unlabelled: Previous studies focusing on the changes of heart rate, systolic blood pressure and dyspnea caused by the six-minute (6MWT) and shuttle walking distance tests (ISWT) have produced conflicting data. The present study aims at comparing the cardiovascular and dyspnea responses to 6MWT and ISWT in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Twenty patients with clinically stable COPD (age, 56 +/- 9 yrs; BMI, 27.