Short-term exercise training benefits pulmonary arterial hypertension patients.

OBJECTIVES

Studies have shown exercise rehabilitation training improves exercise tolerance in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. However, implementing such programs in developing countries can be challenging. We investigated the benefits of short-term exercise rehabilitation training for PAH patients in a developing country.

METHODS

This study was a prospective study of adult PAH patients attending the cardiology outpatient unit of a tertiary referral hospital. The patients were equally divided into an intervention group and a control group. We measured hemodynamic characteristics and six-minute walking distance (6MWD) before and after four weeks of exercise rehabilitation training. The Shapiro-Wilk normality test was performed, followed by an independent t-test or Mann-Whitney test to statistically compare the data.

RESULTS

We included 28 patients aged 29.1 ± 11 years. We found no significant differences in all hemodynamic characteristics between the groups before and after the rehabilitation (all p-values >0.05). The intervention group showed a significant increase in 6MWD (300.6 ± 90.8 (95% CI: 248.2, 352.9) vs 436.3 ± 58.8 (95% CI: 402.3, 470.2), p-value <0.001) and consequently, the Δ6MWD in the intervention group was remarkably higher (17.1 ± 48.3 (95% CI: -10.8, 44.9) vs 115.36 ± 54.69 m (95% CI: 83.8, 146.9), p-value <0.001).

CONCLUSION

A short-term exercise rehabilitation training safely improved the exercise tolerance of patients with PAH. Our findings may lead to the improvement of rehabilitation strategies for this detrimental disease in countries with limited resources.