MR augmented cardiopulmonary exercise testing - a novel method of assessing cardiovascular function

Background Reduced exercise capacity is a common feature of many cardiovascular diseases. Quantitative assessment of exercise capacity is usually achieved by measuring peak oxygen consumption (VO2). However, measuring peak VO2 alone neglects the different components of reduced exercise capacity: namely reduced cardiac output (CO) and oxygen extraction (ΔcO2). A better approach would be to simultaneously measure VO2 and CO and then calculate ΔcO2. This could be achieved using MR augmented cardio-pulmonary exercise testing (MR-CPET) The aims of this study were to demonstrate: 1) MRCPET is feasible and well tolerated, 2) peak VO2 in the MR scanner correlates with conventional peak VO2, and 3) variation in peak VO2 is related to both peak CO and peak oxygen extraction (ΔcO2) as calculated by the Fick equation.