Exercise and chronic heart failure (CHF)

• a meta-analysis of randomised trials (1) provides no evidence that properly supervised medical training programmes for patients with heart failure might be dangerous
  • the meta-analysis provided evidence that, in patients with chronic heart failure from left ventricular systolic dysfunction,
    • exercise training delayed death and hospital admissions
• a further systematic review (2) concluded that exercise training was safe in patients with heart failure and resulted in increased peak oxygen consumption
• a study has shown that (3):
  • exercise training confers modest but statistically significant improvements in self-reported health status compared with usual care without training
  • improvements occur early and persist over time

Reference:

1. Piepoli MF et al. Exercise training meta-analysis of trials in patients with chronic heart failure (ExTraMATCH). BMJ 2004;328:189-92.
2. Smart N et al . Exercise training for patients with heart failure: a systematic review of factors that improve mortality and morbidity. Am J Med 2004;116:693-706
3. O'Connor CM et al. Effects of exercise training on health status in patients with chronic heart failure: HF-ACTION randomized controlled trial.JAMA. 2009 Apr 8;301(14):1451-9