Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a clinical syndrome presented with central, cardiac deterioration as well as peripheral vascular and muscular abnormalities, resulting finally to reduced exercise tolerance, quality of life and mortality rates. Exercise training is a major component of rehabilitation / secondary prevention interventions, inducing significant beneficial changes in mechanisms of pathophysiology, exercise tolerance, functional capacity and quality of life, while a positive impact on hospitalization and mortality reduction should not be also excluded. There has been growing interest in the characteristics and modalities of exercise training able to induce optimal benefits. High intensity and interval mode have been shown to induce greater benefits than moderate intensity and continuous mode regimes. Additionally, there has been sound rationale for the inclusion of strength training, which has been also shown able to yield benefits in terms of exercise capacity and quality of life. However, there haven't been much data on the so called combined regimes, which include both aerobic exercise and strength training. This study aims at investigating the effects of combined high-intensity interval and strength training compared to high-intensity interval exercise alone in CHF.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
30
High-intensity interval exercise training \[4 reps \* (4 min at 80% VO2peak + 3 min at 50% VO2peak)\]
High intensity \[2 reps \* (4 min at 80% VO2peak + 3 min at 50% VO2peak)\] and strength exercise training (2-4 sets, 10-12 reps, 60-65% 1RM, for quadriceps and hamstrings, 14 min in total)
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing & Rehabilitation Laboratory, 1st Critical Care Dpt, School of Medicine, University of Athens
Athens, Greece
aerobic exercise capacity (assessed by cardiopulmonary exercise testing)
Time frame: 3 months
strength exercise capacity (assessed by 1-repetition maximum test)
Time frame: 3 months
quality of life (assessed by MLWHF questionnaire)
Time frame: 3 months
quadriceps local adaptations (assessed by muscle biopsies)
Time frame: 3 months
quadriceps cross sectional area (assessed by CT)
Time frame: 3 months
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