Specific phosphodiesterase inhibition and maximal and submaximal exercise performance in patients with congestive heart failure.

The current therapeutic interest in specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibition involves patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF) whose symptoms are not controlled by diuretics, nitrates, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and digitalis. Maximal exercise capacity is limited in these patients by an inadequate rise in cardiac output and a fixed capacity to dilate the skeletal muscle vasculature, which is perhaps compounded by disorders of the skeletal muscle metabolism. To improve maximal exercise capacity, the increase in cardiac performance produced by specific phosphodiesterase inhibitors must, in turn, reverse the abnormalities present in the periphery, and more specifically augment the capacity to dilate the skeletal muscle vasculature. Increased vasodilatory response to maximal exercise probably depends on the regression of structural changes in the skeletal muscle vasculature. Such regression may be mediated by a reduction in neurohormonal vasoconstrictor stimuli and/or chronic augmentation in resting limb blood flow. Submaximal exercise capacity, at work loads equivalent to less than 70% of peak aerobic capacity, appears to be directly limited by depressed cardiac output and high sympathetic vasoconstrictor activity. Specific phosphodiesterase inhibition, which consistently increases left ventricular performance during exercise, is more likely to improve exercise capacity at submaximal work loads than at maximal work loads.