12-Week-Combined Physical Training In Heart Failure Patients

Impact Of Supervised 12-Week-Combined Physical Training In Heart Failure Patients: A Randomized Trial

Purpose: Physical exercise exerts favorable impact on functional capacity (FC) and quality of life (QL) in patients with heart failure (HF). It is believed that the combined aerobic and resistance physical training (CPT) supervised by physical educator is better than only prescription of unsupervised exercise. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of a CPT program on the FC and QL of HF patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFREF) with the practice medical routine prescription of regular physical activity and correlate these findings with clinical and echocardiographic variables. Methods: A longitudinal prospective study included 28 consecutive HFREF patients randomly divided in two age- and gender- matched groups: Trained Group (TG, n = 17), patients undergoing 12 weeks of supervised CPT and Non Trained Group (NTG, n = 11), patients receiving only medical prescription to practice regular physical exercise. All patients were submitted to clinical evaluation, transthoracic echocardiography, Cooper walk test and QL questionnaire before and after the study protocol. Student t test or Mann-Whitney test were performed for groups comparison and correlation tests for the same group variable associations.

Inclusion Criteria: Patients with heart failure with LVEF <50%; Patients with optimized drug therapy; Age over 18 years. Exclusion Criteria: Heart failure NYHA class IV and/or Stage D; Decompensated HF in the last three months; Atrial fibrillation and/or implantable device at the moment of inclusion; Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); Patients with biomechanical limitations of physical activity.