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Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Translated Title

有氧運動訓練對左心室心衰竭患者心肺耐力及左心室功能之成效：前驅試驗

Abstract

Background: Exercise is not only beneficial for physical and psychological health but can also improve cardiac contractility; thus, exercise can result in the improvement of the functional status of patients who suffer from irreversible damage from heart failure. However, there are limited local data on the effects of moderate-intensity exercise training on cardiorespiratory fitness and left ventricular function among patients with heart failure. Purpose: The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of moderate-intensity exercise training on cardiorespiratory fitness and left ventricular function among patients with heart failure. Methods: This is a pilot study with a single group and quasi-experimental research design. Purposive sampling was applied to recruit target patients with heart failure at a medical center in northern Taiwan. Seven participants completed a 12-week moderate-intensity (60% peak oxygen uptake, VO_(2peak)) exercise training program. The anthropometric measurements, cardiorespiratory fitness (VO_(2peak)), duration of exercise testing, exercise capacity, maximum heart rate, and left ventricular function (ejection fraction, EF) were collected before and after the exercise training program. A paired t-test was applied to appraise the differences of all outcome indicators before and after the exercise training program. Results: The results showed that after a 12-week moderate-intensity exercise training program, there was no adverse event occurred and that body weight, BMI, and waist-to-hip ratio decreased by 1.64 kg (2.1%, p = .023), 0.95 kg/m^2 (3.3%, p = .006), and 0.03 (3.2%, p = .004), respectively. Cardiorespiratory fitness was significantly improved; the VO_(2peak) increased by 2.18 ml/kg/min (10.7%, p = .002). The duration of the exercise testing increased by 2.04 minutes (25.9%, p = .002); the exercise capacity increased by 0.61 MET (10.6%, p = .006); the maximum heart rate increased by 11.7 bpm (9.4%, p = .016) to 135.9 bpm. With regards to left ventricular function, a significant increase in the ejection fraction of 9.29% (34.8%, p ＜ .001) was observed among patients with heart failure after completing the 12-week exercise training program. Conclusions: We confirm that a moderate-intensity exercise training program is safe for patients with heart failure. Exercise training not only improves anthropometric data and increases cardiorespiratory fitness in general but also improves the left ventricular function of patients with heart failure. The results of this study confirm that exercise has a beneficial impact on cardiac function. We recommend that clinicians aggressively refer heart failure patients to exercise training programs that are individualized based on the results of exercise testing; this will greatly improve the physical function of heart failure patients.

Language

Traditional Chinese

First Page

251

Last Page

262

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