Zeitschrift für Herz- und Lungenrehabilitation

Abstrakt

Repeated Assessment of Exercise Capacity under Goal-Oriented Sequential Combination Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Hirashiki A *,Shimizu A ,Toba K ,Murohara T ,Kondo T

Little is known about the effects of sequential combination therapy on exercise capacity in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). We monitored exercise capacity by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) and observed the benefit of using a peak oxygen uptake (VO2) cut-off of 15 mL/min/kg to guide combination therapy. The patients underwent CPX at baseline and after 3, 6, and 12 months. In patients newly diagnosed with PAH, exercise capacity progressively improved due to sequential combination therapy that was revised according to patients’ peak VO2. Therefore, repeated CPX assessment can provide useful information regarding the effectiveness of goal-oriented treatment for PAH.