What is cardiopulmonary fitness?

  • Cardiopulmonary fitness is a measure of how heart, lungs and other tissues respond to exercise, and it is affected in approximately 50% of patients with advanced liver disease.

  • Reliable data has shown that the inactivity from staying in bed for 3 weeks makes the heart and lung look as if they have aged up to 30 years. As such, frequent admissions to the hospital severely affect cardiopulmonary fitness.

  • Cardiopulmonary fitness is commonly measured by a cardiorespiratory stress test.

    • This is similar to a cardiac stress test, but it also measures oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production.

    • When results from many studies performing this test in patients with liver disease were combined, it was found that oxygen consumption was greatly affected, corresponding to:

      • Almost half of what was expected for age and sex

      • An observed oxygen consumption similar to that of patients 15 to 30 years older.

  • As such, advanced liver disease gravely affects fitness causing heart and lungs to inappropriately respond to physical activity as if they were significantly older than actual age.