1. Home-based cardiac rehabilitation decreases red cell distribution width in chronic heart failure.
- Author
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Mohri M, Motohama R, and Sato N
- Subjects
- Aged, Erythrocyte Count, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure physiopathology, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Severity of Illness Index, Erythrocyte Indices, Erythrocytes cytology, Exercise Therapy methods, Exercise Tolerance physiology, Heart Failure blood, Heart Failure rehabilitation, Home Care Services
- Abstract
Objective: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure of variation in the volume of circulating erythrocytes and has recently emerged as a powerful prognostic marker in heart failure. We studied the effect of 5-month, home-based cardiac rehabilitation on RDW., Methods and Results: Sixty-two patients (age: median 67 years, IQR 63-74) with chronic heart failure caused by reduced left ventricular systolic function were enrolled. Exercise time and physical activity levels out of the hospital were determined by a single-axial accelerometer. Baseline RDW values were: median 13.6, IQR 12.8-14.4%, with 13 patients (21.0%) showing values above the upper normal limit. RDW values were decreased significantly after training in the 13 patients with elevated baseline RDW values (P < 0.01), but not in the remaining 49 patients with normal baseline RDW values. There was a highly significant correlation between baseline RDW and changes in RDW after exercise training (P = 0.0001, r2 = 0.628, n = 62). The time spent for moderate (> 3 METs) exercise was: median 9.0, IQR 3.0-18.8 minutes per day., Conclusions: Relatively low intensity, home-based cardiac rehabilitation was associated with decreased RDW in heart failure patients with abnormal RDW.
- Published
- 2013
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