CONCLUSION Exercise therapy increases the PWD and AWD  in patients with intermittent claudication .
Supervised exercise therapy increases the PWD and AWD more than st and ard care .
OBJECTIVE To review the evidence for the effectiveness of exercise therapy and to estimate the additional effect of supervision on exercise therapy in patients with intermittent claudication .
Effective training for patients with intermittent claudication
Objective . Current guidelines for treatment of intermittent claudication ( IC ) do not include a specific recommendation for the intensity of exercise therapy . Thus , the purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of high versus low intensity exercise for patients with IC , and further to study the effect of such training on blood flow to the legs during exercise . Design . The effect of eight weeks of supervised endurance training was examined in 16 patients with IC . The patients were r and omly assigned to training at intensities corresponding to either 60 % or 80 % of their peak oxygen consumption ( VO2peak ) , respectively . Results . VO2peak and time to exhaustion increased significantly ( 9 % and 16 % , respectively ) more in the high intensity group ( p<0.05 ) . Blood flow to the legs did not change after training in any of the groups . Conclusion . High intensity training gave larger improvements in VO2peak and time to exhaustion than low intensity training . As blood flow did not change after the exercise program , it is likely that the observed different increase of VO2peak was due to changed mitochondrial oxidative capacity and /or skeletal muscle diffusive capacity
CONCLUSION Exercise therapy increases the PWD and AWD  in patients with intermittent claudication .
Supervised exercise therapy increases the PWD and AWD more than st and ard care .
OBJECTIVE To review the evidence for the effectiveness of exercise therapy and to estimate the additional effect of supervision on exercise therapy in patients with intermittent claudication .