Background: Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPX) is essential for the assessment of exercise capacity for patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF). Respiratory gas and hemodynamic parameters such as Ventilatory Efficiency (VE/VCO2 slope), peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2), and heart rate recovery are established diagnostic and prognostic markers for clinical populations. Previous studies have suggested the clinical value of metrics related to respiratory gas collected during recovery from peak exercise, particularly recovery time to 50% (T1/2) of peak VO2. The current study explores these metrics in detail during recovery from peak exercise in CHF.Methods: Patients with CHF who were referred for CPX and healthy individuals without formal diagnoses were assessed for inclusion. All subjects performed CPX on cycle ergometers to volitional exhaustion and were monitored for at least five minutes of recovery. CPX data were analyzed for overshoot of respiratory exchange ratio (RER=VCO2/VO2), ventilatory equivalent for oxygen (VE/VO2), end-tidal partial pressure of oxygen (PETO2), and T1/2 of peak VO2 and VCO2.Results: Thirty-two patients with CHF and 30 controls were included. Peak VO2 differed significantly between patients and controls (13.5 & PLUSMN; 3.8 vs. 32.5 & PLUSMN; 9.8 mL/Kg*min-1, p < 0.001). Mean Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) was 35.9 & PLUSMN; 9.8% for patients with CHF compared to 61.1 & PLUSMN; 8.2% in the control group. The T1/2 of VO2, VCO2 and VE was significantly higher in patients (111.3 & PLUSMN; 51.0, 132.0 & PLUSMN; 38.8 and 155.6 & PLUSMN; 45.5s) than in controls (58.08 & PLUSMN; 13.2, 74.3 & PLUSMN; 21.1, 96.7 & PLUSMN; 36.8s; p < 0.001) while the overshoot of PETO2, VE/VO2 and RER was significantly lower in patients (7.2 & PLUSMN; 3.3, 41.9 & PLUSMN; 29.1 and 25.0 & PLUSMN; 13.6%) than in controls (10.1 & PLUSMN; 4.6, 62.1 & PLUSMN; 17.7 and 38.7 & PLUSMN; 15.1%; all p < 0.01). Most of the recovery metrics were significantly correlated with peak VO2 in CHF patients, but not with LVEF.Conclusions: Patients with CHF have a significantly blunted recovery from peak exercise. This is reflected in delays of VO2, VCO2, VE, PETO2, RER and VE/VO2, reflecting a greater energy required to return to baseline. Abnormal respiratory gas kinetics in CHF was negatively correlated with peak VO2 but not baseline LVEF.