Cerebral desaturation in heart failure: Potential prognostic value and physiologic basis

Cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO2) reflects cerebral perfusion and tissue oxygen consumption, which decline in some patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) or stroke, especially during exercise. Its physiologic basis and clinical significance remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the association of SctO2 with oxygen transport physiology and known prognostic factors during both rest and exercise in patients with HFrEF or stroke. Thirty-four HFrEF patients, 26 stroke patients, and 17 healthy controls performed an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test using a bicycle ergometer. Integrated near-infrared spectroscopy and automatic gas analysis were used to measure cerebral tissue oxygenation and cardiac and ventilatory parameters. We found that SctO2 (rest; peak) were significantly lower in the HFrEF (66.3±13.3%; 63.4±13.8%,) than in the stroke (72.1±4.2%; 72.7±4.5%) and control (73.1±2.8%; 72±3.2%) groups. In the HFrEF group, SctO2 at rest (SctO2rest) and peak SctO2 (SctO2peak) were linearly correlated with brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), peak oxygen consumption (V˙O2peak), and oxygen uptake efficiency slope (r between -0.561 and 0.677, p