Dataset related to the article HOW HEART FAILURE PATIENTS PERFORM DAILY LIFE ACTIVITIES: AN INNATE ENERGY-SAVING STRATEGY

This record contains raw data related to the article HOW HEART FAILURE PATIENTS PERFORM DAILY LIFE ACTIVITIES: AN INNATE ENERGY-SAVING STRATEGY

Background

Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) and six-minute walking test (6MWT) are frequently used tools to evaluate physical performance in heart failure (HF), but they do neither represent activities of daily living (ADLs) nor fully reproduce patients’ symptoms. We assessed differences in task oxygen uptake (taskVO2), both as absolute value and as percentage of peakVO2 (%peakVO2), ventilation efficiency (VE/VCO2 ratio), and dyspnea intensity (Borg scale) in HF and healthy subjects during standard ADLs and other common physical actions.

Methods

Healthy and HF subjects (ejection fraction (EF) <45%, stable conditions) underwent CPET. All of them, carrying a wearable metabolic cart, performed a 6MWT, two 4-minute treadmill exercises (at 2 and 3 km/h), and ADLs: ADL1 (getting dressed), ADL2 (folding 8 towels), ADL3 (putting away 6 bottles), ADL4 (making a bed), ADL5 (sweeping the floor for 4 minutes), ADL6 (climbing 1 flight of stairs carrying a load).

Results

Sixty HF patients (age 65.2±12.1yrs; EF 30.4±6.7%, peakVO2 14.2±4.0ml/min/kg) and 40 healthy volunteers (58.9±8.2yrs, peakVO2 28.1±7.4ml/min/kg) were enrolled. For each exercise, patients showed higher VE/VCO2 ratio, %peakVO2, and Borg scale value than controls, while absolute values of taskVO2 and exercise duration were lower and higher, respectively, in all activities, except for treadmill (fixed execution time and intensity). Differently from Borg Scale data, metabolic values and exercise time length changed in parallel with HF severity, except for ADL duration in very short (ADL3) and composite (ADL1) activities. Borg scale values correlated with %peakVO2.

Conclusions.

During ADLs, patients self-regulated activities in parallel with HF severity by decreasing intensity (VO2) and prolonging the effort.