Abstract
Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a growing healthcare problem. Patients with CHF suffer from exercise intolerance attributable to cardiac dysfunction and, to some extent, skeletal muscle abnormalities. Because exercise intolerance is strongly associated with quality of life and event-free survival, evaluating exercise capacity and its pathophysiological contributors is important for patient assessment and medical treatment decisions.
Therefore, the first objective of this thesis was to explore novel methods for the assessment of exercise intolerance and its physiological determinants in skeletal muscle of patients with CHF. In addition, we used these methods to address the second objective, which was to demonstrate heterogeneity of the physiological determinants of exercise intolerance and its influence on the effects of exercise training in individual patients with CHF.
Defence date: 11/01/18