Influence of exercise training on glucose metabolism in chronic heart failure: set-up of a pilot animal study

Abstract

Introduction. Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex disorder in which the heart is unable to maintain normal cardiac output without elevated intracardiac filling pressures. It has been proven that CHF is associated with glucose abnormalities and that patients suffering from both CHF and diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) have a far worse prognosis than non-diabetic CHF patients. The presented study investigates the link between CHF and disturbances in glucose metabolism and focuses on the time course of the development of both disorders. It is hypothesized that development of cardial hypertrophy is related to the development of glucose intolerance and that exercise training could have a beneficial effect on glucose tolerance. Material & Methods. Dahl Salt Sensitive rats (n= 24) were divided into four groups: trained salt (n= 6), sedentary salt (n= 6), trained control (n= 6) and sedentary control (n= 6). Starting from the age of 7 weeks, the salt groups were subjected to a high-salt di