Impact of beta‐blockers on cardiopulmonary exercise testing in patients with advanced liver disease

Abstract

Ventilatory threshold is reduced in patients with advanced liver disease taking beta-blockers compared to those not taking the medication. This may incorrectly risk stratify patients on beta-blockers and has implications for patient management before and after liver transplantation. The oxygen uptake efficiency slope was not influenced by beta-blockers and may therefore be a better measure of cardiopulmonary performance in this patient population.

Physical deconditioning is the common denominator in both obese and overweight subjects with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

“…NASH patients, regardless of BMI, also have lower than recommended participation in physical activity, and elevated amounts of visceral fat compared to adjusted norms. Because of the severity of deconditioning, fitness parameters such as VO2peak and LT may be useful predictors or evaluation tools for patients' response to an exercise intervention, both in research and in typical clinical scenarios, and they appear feasible in chronic liver disease patients . Future research regarding the effects of exercise in NASH, trainability of NASH patients with exercise programs, and the applicability of VO2peak and other classic measures of exercise capacity in this population should include objective evaluation of cardiorespiratory fitness, fat/body composition, and histological criteria to ensure that interventions and assessment design are standardised to give clinicians and patients useful targets in attempting to alter the course of NASH through exercise.…”

Rowing-Ramp Protocol as A Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test for Hemiparetic Stroke Survivors

“…However, HR is not a reliable marker to predict VO 2 max in stroke patients because they often take medications such as beta-blockers (Albouaini et al 2007). Even, the ventilatory threshold is also influenced by beta-blockers and also can not be used as a cardiopulmonary performance measure (Wallen et al, 2017).…”