Response of left and right ventricle rate indices to exercise in normal volunteers

Changes in left ventricular (LV) performance between rest (Re) and exercise (Ex) in normal hearts has been analysed in great detail using various parameters (P) of radionuclide MUGA studies. Little attention was given in this regard to right ventricular (RV) performance. We developed a program on the Informatik Sims V Computer applying the first derivative technique to analyse the time activity curve of both R and LV to study the changes in the following (P) between Re and Ex. 1. Ejection fraction (EF) 2. Peak ejection rate (PER) 3. Time to peak ejection rate (TPER) 4. Normalized TPER to the ejection period (EP) 5. Peak filling rate (PFR) 6. Time to peak filling rate (TPFR) 7. Normalized TPFR to the filling period (FP) 8. The time from peak filling rate to peak ejection rate (TPFR-TPER). Nineteen volunteers performed gated blood pool studies at Re and Ex in the semi-supine bicycle position. The results show that there were significant differences (P less than 0.0001) between all the parameters of the right and left ventricles at rest in comparison with those during exercise except for the normalized TPER in both right and left ventricles. In this study not only do we confirm the changes in LV performance between Re and Ex in healthy volunteers that has been previously reported, but we also report for the first time the changes in RV (P) in the same group of volunteers.