The Utilization of Exercise Tests in Evaluating Patients with Pulmonary Vascular Disease

It is known that patients with pulmonary hypertension show an augmented ventilatory response to exercise defined as the slope of minute ventilation over carbon dioxide production (VE/VCO2). We suggested that the degree of ventilatory augmentation may be used to differentiate between patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), Eisenmenger (E.) and chronic thromboembolic (CH.TH.EM.) disease.