Peak oxygen pulse (O2 pulsepeak) may have predictive utility for health outcomes yet, presently, has only been examined in men and only using a single baseline measure.
Purpose: The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between O2 pulsepeak and all-cause mortality in apparently healthy women and men. A secondary aim was to explore the relationship between longitudinal changes to O2 pulsepeak and mortality.
Methods: The sample included 3877 participants (43% women) for the primary aim and 759 participants (32% women) who performed two cardiopulmonary exercise tests ≥1 year apart for the secondary aim. Cox proportional hazard models were performed to determine the relationship between O2 pulsepeak and mortality. Prognostic peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) and O2 pulsepeak models were compared using the concordance index and Akaike information criterion (AIC).
Results: In the assessment from baseline, there were 730 deaths over a 24.7 ± 11.8 year follow-up period. For men, a single measure of O2 pulsepeak was inversely associated with risk for mortality (P < 0.05). However, the concordance index and AIC indicated lower discrimination compared to VO2peak models and O2 pulsepeak did not provide complementary benefit to VO2peak models. For women, O2 pulsepeak was not associated with mortality risk. In the longitudinal analysis, there were 168 deaths over a follow-up of 20.1 ± 11.4 years. Changes to O2 pulsepeak were not significantly related to mortality in either sex.
Conclusions: Within an apparently healthy cohort, a single assessment of O2 pulsepeak is related to all-cause mortality in men but not women. Further, longitudinal changes to O2 pulsepeak are not predictive of mortality in either sex. These findings suggest O2 pulsepeak may have limited prognostic utility in healthy individuals, particularly within healthy women.
Keywords: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing; Exercise test; Prognosis; Stroke volume; Ventilatory expired gas.
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