Pharmacological trials including patients with more severe heart failure were more likely to show a significant improvement with therapy than trials of milder heart failure .
Using mean values in these trials , the age of patients appeared a more important determinant of 6MWT distance than New York Heart Association classification .
The 6MWT has not yet been proven to be a robust test for the identification of effective pharmacological interventions although it appears useful for the assessment of cardiac resynchronization therapy .
The results of the 6MWT were concordant with changes in symptoms , suggesting that it may be used as supportive evidence for symptom benefit .
AIMS The 6 min walk test ( 6MWT ) is commonly used in clinical trials to assess treatments for heart failure , but its ability to distinguish between effective and ineffective treatments is question able .
The aim of this study is to investigate , using a systematic literature review , the utility of the 6MWT as a measure of the effectiveness of treatment in r and omized controlled trials of heart failure .
Long-term evaluation of treatment for chronic heart failure: A 1 year comparative trial of flosequinan and captopril
Summary Two hundred and nine patients with moderate to severe chronic heart failure , all of whom remained symptomatic despite at least 80 mg of frusemide daily , were r and omized to 12 months treatment with flosequinan or captopril .  The patients were stratified into two groups , a treadmill group and a corridor walk test group , depending upon their exercise capability . Sixty-five out of 102 patients r and omized to flosequinan and 43 out of 107 r and omized to captopril ( p<0.001 ) did not complete the study . There was no difference between the groups in mortality : 19 patients died while taking flosequinan and 15 while taking captopril . Both drugs had similar effects on treadmill exercise tolerance ; the mean increase at week 52 was 117 seconds in the flosequinan group and 156 seconds ( p=0.57 ) for the captopril group . For those patients stratified to the corridor walk test only , there was also very little difference in the improvement at 52 weeks ; the mean increase for patients r and omized to flosequinan was 61 meters and captopril was 75 meters ( p=0.65 ) . However , when the walk tests from all patients are examined , captopril produced a significant improvement compared with flosequinan at week 52 ( p=0.015 ) . Flosequinan has similar long-term efficacy to captopril but is associated with a higher incidence of adverse events
Pharmacological trials including patients with more severe heart failure were more likely to show a significant improvement with therapy than trials of milder heart failure .
Using mean values in these trials , the age of patients appeared a more important determinant of 6MWT distance than New York Heart Association classification .
The 6MWT has not yet been proven to be a robust test for the identification of effective pharmacological interventions although it appears useful for the assessment of cardiac resynchronization therapy .
The results of the 6MWT were concordant with changes in symptoms , suggesting that it may be used as supportive evidence for symptom benefit .
AIMS The 6 min walk test ( 6MWT ) is commonly used in clinical trials to assess treatments for heart failure , but its ability to distinguish between effective and ineffective treatments is question able .
The aim of this study is to investigate , using a systematic literature review , the utility of the 6MWT as a measure of the effectiveness of treatment in r and omized controlled trials of heart failure .