Home-based exercise increased exercise capacity safely but did not improve quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure .
It could therefore be used to improve the management of people with chronic heart failure who do not have access to hospital-based exercise
QUESTIONS Does home-based exercise improve exercise capacity and quality of life in people with chronic heart failure ?
Is it safe ?
Physical training in patients with chronic heart failure of ischemic origin: effect on exercise capacity and left ventricular remodeling
Background Physical training is a well-known complementary treatment for chronic heart failure ( CHF ) ; however , many aspects require further studies . One of them is the impact on remodeling of the left ventricle ( LV ) . The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 6 months of training on LV , exercise capacity and safety issues in patients with ischemic CHF . Methods Fifty patients ( mean age 60.1 ± 9.2 years ) with ischemic CHF , New York Heart Association ( NYHA ) classification class II and III and left ventricular ejection fraction ( LVEF ) ≤ 35 % were r and omized into groups : undergoing 6-month training ( 25 patients ) and not trained ( 25 patients ) . In both groups at baseline and at 6 months a cardiopulmonary exercise test and magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI ) with evaluation of LV were performed . Training was limited by the achievement of 80 % of the predicted heart rate at VO2PEAK achieved at the baseline cardiopulmonary exercise test . Results All patients completed the 6-month observation . No serious adverse events were found in either group . Exercise capacity improved only in the trained group ( VO 2peak increased by 31 % ) . At 6 months in the trained group there was a tendency towards an improvement in some LV parameters : ejection fraction , end-diastolic volume and wall motion score index ( WMSI ) , whereas an opposite trend was seen in the controls ( P < 0.05 , P < 0.05 and P < 0.01 for comparison of LVEFs , end-diastolic volumes and WMSIs , respectively ) . Conclusions Six-month training in ischemic CHF patients is a safe modality . Training improves exercise capacity . There was no negative impact on LV morphology , and a trend towards improvement of functional parameters on MRI may suggest an anti-remodeling effect of training in patients with ischemic CHF . Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 14 : 85 - 91 © 2007 The European Society of
Home-based exercise increased exercise capacity safely but did not improve quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure .
It could therefore be used to improve the management of people with chronic heart failure who do not have access to hospital-based exercise
QUESTIONS Does home-based exercise improve exercise capacity and quality of life in people with chronic heart failure ?
Is it safe ?