Muscle fatigue is a prominent symptom in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). To determine whether it results from an intrinsic abnormality of vasodilating capacity of the vasculature in exercising muscle, we studied local forearm blood flow (FBF) during exercise in 13 patients with severe CHF and in eight normal untrained subjects of similar age. Intermittent forearm static exercise was performed by squeezing a hand dynamometer for 5 seconds, three times per minute, for 5 minutes at 15%, 30%, and 45% of maximum voluntary contraction. FBF was measured by mercury-in-rubber strain gauge venous plethysmography at baseline before exercise and during the last 3 minutes of each exercise state. Exercise was repeated after 24 hours of intravenous administration of milrinone in the patients with CHF. FBF increased with forearm exercise in a reproducible manner during 24 hours in the normal subjects: rest, 2.54 +/- 0.23 (0 hours), 2.90 +/- 0.23, (24 hours); 15%, 7.25 +/- 0.92, 5.85 +/- 0.56; 30%, 9.20 +/- 1.08, 10.05 +/- 0.85; 45%, 14.62 +/- 1.64, 13.85 +/- 1.09 ml/100 ml/min; p = NS, 0 versus 24 hours. In patients with CHF, FBF was reduced at baseline compared with normal subjects (1.70 +/- 0.15 ml/100 ml/min, p less than 0.05), but no significant differences from normal subjects were observed during exercise (15%, 5.04 +/- 0.65; 30%, 7.64 +/- 0.99; 45%, 12.56 +/- 1.20 ml/100 ml/min). Peak exercise blood flow was correlated negatively with central venous pressure (r = -0.65, p less than 0.05) and positively with right ventricular ejection fraction (r = 0.59, p less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)