QUANTIFICATION OF EXERCISE TOLERANCE IN CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE AND ROLE OF ACE INHIBITORS.

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a complex syndrome impacting exercise capacity.
• Conventional treatments for CHF include digitalis and diuretics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors on exercise tolerance in patients with CHF.
• To compare the efficacy of ACE inhibitors combined with conventional therapy versus conventional therapy alone.

Main Methods:

• A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted with 25 patients in NYHA Class II & III CHF.
• Patients received either conventional treatment (Group A) or conventional treatment plus captopril/enalapril (Group B).
• Exercise tolerance was assessed using treadmill testing at the beginning and end of the study (approx. 3 months).

Main Results:

• Both groups showed improvement in exercise duration, but Group B (ACE inhibitors) demonstrated a statistically significant increase (p < 0.001) compared to Group A (p < 0.05).
• The difference in exercise duration improvement between the two groups was statistically significant (p < 0.05).
• No significant differences were observed in clinical or noninvasive parameters between the groups.

Conclusions:

• ACE inhibitors enhance exercise tolerance in patients with congestive heart failure.
• The improvement in exercise capacity with ACE inhibitors is evident irrespective of changes in left ventricular function indices.