Direct and indirect assessment of skeletal muscle blood flow in chronic congestive heart failure

In patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF), skeletal muscle blood flow can be measured directly by the continuous thermodilution technique and by the xenon133 clearance method. The continuous thermodilution technique requires retrograde catheterization of the femoral vein and, thus, cannot be repeated conveniently in patients during evaluation of pharmacologic interventions. The xenon133 clearance, which requires only an intramuscular injection, allows repeated determination of skeletal muscle blood flow. In patients with severe CHF, a fixed capacity of the skeletal muscle vasculature to dilate appears to limit maximal exercise performance. Moreover, the changes in peak skeletal muscle blood flow noted during long-term administration of captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, appears to correlate with the changes in aerobic capacity. In patients with CHF, resting supine deep femoral vein oxygen content can be used as an indirect measurement of resting skeletal muscle blood flow. The absence of a steady state complicates the determination of peak skeletal muscle blood flow reached during graded bicycle or treadmill exercise in patients with chronic CHF. Indirect assessments of skeletal muscle blood flow and metabolism during exercise performed at submaximal work loads are currently developed in patients with chronic CHF.