Exercise-induced hypoxemia in heart transplant recipients.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether heart transplantation has an adverse effect on pulmonary diffusion and to investigate the potentially deleterious effects of impaired pulmonary diffusion on arterial blood gas dynamics during exercise in heart transplant recipients. BACKGROUND: Abnormal pulmonary diffusing capacity is reported in patients after orthotopic heart transplantation. Abnormal diffusion may be caused by cyclosporine or by the persistence of preexisting conditions known to adversely affect diffusion, such as congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. METHODS: Eleven patients (mean age 50 +/- 14 years) performed pulmonary function tests 3 +/- 1 months before and 18 +/- 12 (mean +/- SD) months after heart transplantation. Transplant patients were assigned to groups with diffusion > 70% (n = 5) or diffusion < 70% of predicted values (n = 5). The control group and both subsets of patients performed 10 min of cycle exercise at 40% and 70% of peak power output. Arterial blood gases were drawn every 30 s during the 1st 5 min and at 6, 8 and 10 min. RESULTS: Significant improvements in forced vital capacity (17.4%), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (11.7%) and diffusion capacity (6.6%) occurred in the patients; however, posttransplantation vital capacity, forced expiratory volume and diffusion were lower (p < or = 0.05) compared with values in 11 matched control subjects. Changes in blood gases were similar among groups at 40% of peak power output. At 70% of peak power output, arterial blood gases and pH were significantly (p < or = 0.05) lower in transplant patients with low diffusion (arterial oxygen pressure 15 to 38 mm Hg below baseline) than in patients with normal diffusion and control subjects. Cardiac index did not differ (p > or = 0.05) between transplant patients with normal and low diffusion at rest or during exercise. Posttransplantation mean pulmonary artery pressure was significantly related to exercise-induced hypoxemia (r = 0.71; p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal pulmonary diffusion observed in patients before heart transplantation persists after transplantation with or without restrictive or obstructive ventilatory defects. Heart transplant recipients experience exercise-induced hypoxemia when diffusion at rest is < 70% of predicted. Our data also suggest that abnormal pulmonary gas exchange possibly contributes to diminished peak oxygen consumption in some heart transplant recipients; however, direct testing of this hypothesis was beyond the scope of the present study. This possibility needs to be investigated further.