Contribution of intrinsic skeletal muscle changes to 31P NMR skeletal muscle metabolic abnormalities in patients with chronic heart failure.

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Abstract
Patients with heart failure frequently exhibit abnormal skeletal muscle metabolic responses to exercise, as assessed with 31P NMR. To investigate whether these metabolic abnormalities are due to intrinsic skeletal muscle changes, we performed gastrocnemius muscle biopsies on 22 patients with heart failure (peak VO2, 15.4 +/- 4.7 ml/kg/min; ejection fraction, 20 +/- 7%) and on eight normal subjects. Biopsies were analyzed for fiber type and area, capillarity, citrate synthase, phosphofructokinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and beta-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase activity. All patients with heart failure also underwent 31P NMR studies of their calf muscle during plantarflexion at three workloads. Muscle pH responses and the relation of the ratio of inorganic phosphate to phosphocreatine (Pi/PCr) to systemic VO2 were then evaluated. Compared with normal subjects, patients with heart failure exhibited a shift in fiber distribution with increased percentage of the fast twitch, glycolytic, easily fatigable type IIb...