Cardiopulmonary Exercises

A prospective randomised study was conducted by Hambrecht et al. (1998) to determine the effects of systemic exercise training on endothelial dysfunction and exercise capacity in CHF patients for 6 months. Subjects (n = 20, age ≤ 70 years) were grouped into 2 groups; training group engaged in exercise on a bicycle ergometer for 10 minutes at 70 % max HR for 6 times daily for 3 weeks in an intermediate ward. Upon discharge, they were instructed to exercised close to their target heart rate twice daily for a total of 40 minutes for 5 days per week, and participated in 1 group session per week. The control group maintained their baseline lifestyle and was supervised by physicians. Inclusion criteria was similar to Coats et al (1992), with an additional baseline assessment outcome of symptom-free exercise capacity of >25W on bicycle ergometry and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 40%. …show more content…
An improvement of peak VO2 were significant in training group. In addition, this study lacked several details such as the exercises done in the group therapy sessions, and also the individual effects on the differences between using three difference exercise frequencies, mode of delivery and durations. Thus, the effects of which exercise prescription was effective to improve peak VO2 is debatable. It was noted that there were insufficient follow-up sessions done to ensure accurate execution of exercises its progression, however the compliance rate was 70%, suggesting that the subjects were able to continue with the exercise training to a large extent. Despite its drawbacks, it showed that high intensity exercise improved peak VO2 in