Abstract
The objective of this prospective study was to assess safety and efficacy of exercise training (ET) in a large cohort of patients with different forms and World Health Organization functional classes (WHO-FC) of chronic pulmonary hypertension (PH).
183 patients with PH (pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), chronic thromboembolic PH (CTEPH) and PH due to respiratory or left heart diseases (PH) received ET in-hospital for 3 weeks and continued at home. Adverse events have been monitored during the in-hospital training program. Efficacy parameters were evaluated at baseline, after 3 and 15 weeks.
After 3 and 15 weeks, patients significantly improved the distance walked in 6 minutes (6MWD) compared to baseline, scores of quality of life, WHO-FC, peak oxygen consumption, oxygen pulse, heart rate and systolic pulmonary artery pressure at rest and maximal workload. The improvement in 6MWD was similar in patients with different PH-forms and functional classes. Even in severely affected patients (FC-IV) ET was highly effective. Adverse events such as respiratory infections, syncope or presyncope occurred in 13% of patients.
Exercise training in PH is an effective but not a completely harmless add-on therapy even in severely diseased patients and should be closely monitored.
- ERS
