Exercise limitations in a competitive cyclist twelve months post heart transplantation

Abstractit has been well documented that for heart transplant recipients(htrecipient) post transplantation exercise capacity does notexceed 60% of healthy age-matched controls. few studies havebeen undertaken to determine the cause of exercise limitationsfollowing heart transplantation (ht) for an elite athlete. participantwas a 39 year old elite male cyclist who suffered an acutemyocardial infarction after a cycling race and received a hearttransplant (ht) four months later. six weeks prior to his amifitness testing was completed and a predicted vo2max of 58ml·kg-1·min-1 and hrmax of 171 bpm was achieved. the participantunderwent maximal exercise testing 6 and 12 months posttransplant to determine exercise limitations. his results 6 and 12months post transplant were a vo2max of 33.8 and 44.2 ml·kg-1·min-1 respectively, and a hr max that was 97% and 96% of hrmax measured. the participant showed an increase in both hrmaxand vo2max 12 months post ht compared to previous testing.results suggest that the limiting factors to exercise followinght are likely due to peripheral function, which became diminishedas a result accumulated from 4 months of congestive heartfailure, the strain of ht, and immunosuppressive therapy leadingup to the exercise testing. lifestyle before ht and a moreaggressive approach to ht recovery should be considered necessaryin the improvement of peripheral functioning followinght.