Heart : official journal of the British Cardiac Society
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To establish the prevalence of chronotropic incompetence in a cohort of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) taking modern medications for heart failure, and whether this affected exercise capacity and predicted prognosis. ⋯ pVo2 is a powerful marker of prognosis for patients with CHF whether they are taking beta blockers or not. A low heart rate response to exercise in patients with CHF correlates with worse exercise tolerance but is unlikely to contribute to exercise impairment.