Is Exercise Safe For Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension?
For patients with pulmonary hypertension, exercise training could improve physical capacity, pulmonary arterial pressure, and quality of life and be safe, according to a recent study.
In the past, health care providers have been wary to prescribe exercise to their chronic pulmonary hypertension patients for fear of adding too much wear and stress to their hearts.1
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“Our analysis found those concerns may be misplaced. More importantly, exercise had a positive effect on several measures of heart function as well as overall quality of life,” said Jarett Berry, MD, senior author of the study and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Sciences at UT Southwestern and Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care.1
In their meta-analysis, researchers evaluated 16 studies involving 434 participants that tested the safety and efficacy of exercise in patients with pulmonary hypertension.2
Overall, investigators saw significant improvements with exercise in 6-minute walk distance, peak oxygen uptake, resting pulmonary arterial systolic pressure, peak exercise heart rate, and quality of life.2
Investigators noted that exercise was well tolerated and had a low dropout rate among participants. No significant adverse events due to exercise was found. 2
“Exercise training in patients with pulmonary hypertension appears safe and is associated with a significant improvement in exercise capacity, pulmonary arterial pressure and quality of life,” they concluded.
The complete study is published in the July issue of Circulation: Heart Failure.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
References:
1. UT Southwestern Medical Center. Studies show exercise is safe, improves quality of life for pulmonary hypertension patients. September 2015. www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/news-releases/year-2015/september/pulmonary-hypertension-berry.html. Accessed September 3, 2015.
2. Pandey A, Garg S, Kunger M, et al. Efficacy and safety of exercise training in chronic pulmonary hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Circ Heart Failure. 2015 July [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.115.002130.