Comparisons of the Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Abnormalities in the Arm and Leg Muscles of Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

• Published in: Circulation Journal 2004, Vol.68(6), pp.573-579
• Main Authors: Nagai, Tatsuya, Okita, Koichi, Yonezawa, Kazuya, Yamada, Yutaka, Hanada, Akiko, Ohtsubo, Mitsunori, Morita, Noriteru, Murakami, Takeshi, Nishijima, Hirotaka, Kitabatake, Akira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Arm; Case-Control Studies; Chronic Disease; Energy Metabolism - physiology; Exercise Test; Exercise tolerance; Heart failure; Heart Failure - metabolism; Heart Failure - physiopathology; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Leg; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Oxygen Consumption - physiology; Phosphocreatine - analysis; Phosphorus Isotopes; Skeletal muscle metabolism
• ISSN: 1346-9843; 1347-4820
• DOI: 10.1253/circj.68.573

Background It has been suspected for some time that patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) have abnormal muscle metabolism, so in the present study the muscle metabolism of the arm and leg were compared by 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) to examine the relationship to exercise tolerance. Methods and Results The study group comprised 13 patients and 11 normal controls. Calf-plantar and forearm-wrist flexion were performed to evaluate the metabolic capacity assessed as the phosphocreatine breakdown rate (PCr-slope) and muscle pH at a submaximal (70% peak) work rate (submax-pH). Exercise of both the arm and leg resulted in an earlier decrease in PCr and muscle pH in patients with CHF compared with controls. There were significant correlations between peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2) and the PCr-slope in both limbs in patients with CHF (forearm: r=0.63, p