Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Functional capacity represents an important predictor for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Impaired cardiopulmonary fitness is frequently seen in DM patients, and it might partly explain morbidity and mortality in these patients. There are several potential reasons that could explain impaired functional capacity in DM patients: hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, microvascular impairment, myocardial dysfunction, and skeletal muscle changes. These changes are partly reversible, and improvement of any of these components might increase functional capacity in DM patients and improve their outcome. Physical activity is related with decreased cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 DM. Diabetic cardiomyopathy is the most important clinical entity in DM patients that involves left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and cardiac autonomic neuropathy, which potentially induce heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Development of diabetic cardiomyopathy may slow oxygen uptake kinetics and affect the cardiorespiratory fitness in DM patients, but it can also induce development of heart failure. Improvement of functional capacity in DM patients represents an important therapeutic task, and it can be achieved mainly with exercise training and significantly less with pharmacological treatment. Exercise training reduces body weight and improves glycemic control, as well as left ventricular structure and function. The aim of this review was to summarize current knowledge about importance of functional capacity in DM patients, as well as possible mechanisms that could explain the relationship between DM and oxygen kinetics.