Safe and effective exercise training for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: putting current evidence into clinical practice.

While there have been significant advances in the medical treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), life expectancy, and quality of life remain reduced in this disease. Strenuous exercise may be hazardous for PAH patients; however, several relatively small trials have confirmed that exercise training programs can be used safely and effectively as adjunctive treatment for selected patients. The use of exercise training is now recommended in consensus international PAH treatment algorithms; however, there is no published guideline detailing how this intervention should be carried out.