Altered cardiac reserve is a determinant of exercise intolerance in sickle cell anaemia patients

Background The underlying mechanisms of exercise intolerance in sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients are complex and not yet completely understood. While latent heart failure at rest could be unmasked upon exercise, most previous studies assessed cardiac function at rest. We aimed to investigate exercise cardiovascular reserve as a potential contributor to exercise intolerance in adult SCA patients. Methods In this observational prospective study, we compared prospectively 60 SCA patients (median age 31 years, 60% women) to 20 matched controls. All subjects underwent symptom‐limited combined exercise echocardiography and oxygen uptake (VO2) measurements. Differences between arterial and venous oxygen content (C(a‐v)O2) were calculated. Cardiac reserve was defined as the absolute change in cardiac index (Ci) from baseline to peak exercise. Results Compared to controls, SCA patients demonstrated severe exercise intolerance (median peakVO2, 34.3 vs. 19.7 ml/min/kg, respectively, p