Correlation among radiologic, echocardiographic indices and self paced-exercise capacity in heart failure

We investigated the relationships between the cardiothoracic ratio, M-mode echocardiographic indices and symptom-limited, self-paced exercise tolerance in 8 Nigerian patients with chronic stable congestive heart failure. Left ventricular diastolic dimension was inversely related to exercise duration; thus: log exercise time (sec) = 6.142-0.057x (r2 = 0.83, P less than 0.05), but was directly correlated to an index of myocardial oxygen demand, the ratio of the pressure rate product (PRP) to the exercise time; thus: log PRP/exercise time = 0.073x-3.04 (r2 = 0.87, P less than 0.05). These preliminary findings need extensive confirmatory evidence.