Renal function and peak exercise oxygen consumption in chronic heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction

Background: Chronic kidney disease is associated with sympathetic activation and muscle abnormalities, which may contribute to decreased exercise capacity. We investigated the correlation of renal function with peak exercise oxygen consumption (V˙O2) in heart failure (HF) patients. Methods and Results: We recruited 2,938 systolic HF patients who underwent clinical, laboratory, echocardiographic and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. The patients were stratified according to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Mean follow-up was 3.7 years. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death and urgent heart transplantation at 3 years. On multivariable regression, eGFR was predictor of peakV˙O2 (P