Dynamic cardiac output regulation at rest, during exercise, and muscle metaboreflex activation: impact of congestive heart failure

We tested whether mild and moderate dynamic exercise and muscle metaboreflex activation (MMA) affect dynamic baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) and cardiac output (CO), and the influence of stroke volume (SV) fluctuations on CO regulation in normal (N) and pacing-induced heart failure (HF) dogs by employing transfer function analyses of the relationships between spontaneous changes in left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) and HR, LVSP and CO, HR and CO, and SV and CO at low and high frequencies (Lo-F, 0.04-0.15 Hz; Hi-F, 0.15-0.6 Hz). In N dogs, both workloads significantly decreased the gains for LVSP-HR and LVSP-CO in Hi-F, whereas only moderate exercise also reduced the LVSP-CO gain in Lo-F. MMA during mild exercise further decreased the gains for LVSP-HR in both frequencies and for LVSP-CO in Lo-F. MMA during moderate exercise further reduced LVSP-HR gain in Lo-F. Coherence for HR-CO in Hi-F was decreased by exercise and MMA, whereas that in Lo-F was sustained at a high level (>0.8) in all settings. HF significantly decreased dynamic HR and CO regulation in all situations. In HF, the coherence for HR-CO in Lo-F decreased significantly in all settings; the coherence for SV-CO in Lo-F was significantly higher. We conclude that dynamic exercise and MMA reduces dynamic baroreflex control of HR and CO, and these are substantially impaired in HF. In N conditions, HR modulation plays a major role in CO regulation. In HF, influence of HR modulation wanes, and fluctuations of SV dominate in CO variations.