Evidence of an Altered Pattern of Breathing during Exercise in Recipients of Heart–Lung Transplants

Abstract

Recipients of heart–lung transplants represent an unusual opportunity to study the regulation of ventilation, because the neural pathways between the lungs and the central nervous system are disrupted in these patients. We compared the ventilation response in seven recipients of heart–lung transplants who had normal pulmonary function and seven recipients of heart transplants, all of whom performed incremental bicycle ergometry.