Peak VO2, Heart Failure Survival Score Predicts Survival

Measures work in both sexes

TUESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Peak exercise oxygen consumption (VO2) and the Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) can predict survival in women with congestive heart failure, finds a new study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Philip Green, B.A., of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., and colleagues investigated whether VO2 and the HFSS could predict prognosis in 274 female congestive heart failure patients who were referred for heart transplants and 278 men who were referred during the same year.

The researchers found that both VO2 testing and the HFSS effectively predicted survival in both men and women. The HFSS, however, is more consistent across genders. Women in medium-risk and high-risk groups based on VO2 did better than men, but there was no difference in survival between men and women with a VO2 of greater than 14 mL/kg/min. The study found that in both genders, the low-risk groups for HFSS and VO2 could safely have transplantation deferred.

"Peak VO2 and the HFSS are excellent parameters to predict survival in women with congestive heart failure," the study authors conclude.

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