Exercise for the dialyzed: aerobic and strength training during hemodialysis.

Objective: To investigate the safety and feasibility of aerobic and strength training during hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease patients and to evaluate its impact on their cardiac fitness, muscle strength, and functional status.

Design: A total of 22 patients undergoing hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease had assessment of their cardiac fitness with stress tests and walk tests, assessment of their muscle strength by one repetition maximum of knee extension, and assessment of their functional status by Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 before and after exercise training. Training, consisting of cycle ergometer exercise and strengthening of the knee extensors two to three times a week for 3 mo, was done during dialysis.

A controlled trial of cardiac rehabilitation in the home setting using electrocardiographic and voice transtelephonic monitoring.

Objective: The goal of this study was to compare the effectiveness of home-based, transtelephonically monitored cardiac rehabilitation with standard, on-site, supervised cardiac rehabilitation.

Background: Participation in cardiac rehabilitation has been demonstrated to increase exercise capacity, decrease cardiovascular symptoms, improve psychosocial status, and decrease total and cardiovascular mortality rates in patients with coronary heart disease. Because of multiple factors, national overall participation is only at 15% of eligible patients.

Intravenous dipyridamole thallium imaging V combined arm-leg cycle stress testing of patients unable to exercise on the treadmill.

Unlabelled: Rehabilitation patients who will undergo noncardiac surgery or strenuous rehabilitation programs often cannot exercise to greater than 85% of predicted maximal heart rate as required for valid treadmill testing. Because many patients have known or suspected coronary artery disease, greatly increasing their risk for a cardiac event, dipyridamole thallium scans are usually performed, despite a cost of approximately $1400, patient radiation exposure, and the need for a gamma camera. Instead, arm-leg cycle stress testing can be continued to an appropriately high heart rate, is done in the physician's office with an electrocardiograph machine and a blood pressure cuff, and costs $250.

Exercise stress testing and risk factor assessment among offspring of cardiac patients.

As we learn more about the origins of coronary artery disease, research has begun to focus on its prevention. The purpose of this study was to determine if exercise stress testing of the offspring of our cardiac rehabilitation patients would be a useful adjunct to their general cardiac risk factor assessment. In addition, we sought to quantitate the number of cardiac risk factors they might have already accumulated.

A simple walk test to guide exercise programming of the elderly.

Exercise training programs are usually based on a maximal exercise stress test; however, this test is often difficult and sometimes frightening to older persons. This preliminary study reports on a fixed-distance, submaximal walk test and compares its usefulness for exercise prescription to that of the traditional maximal stress test. Ten cardiac patients, with an average age of 72 years (4 men), had recently clinically indicated maximal graded stress tests.