"It's put a routine and regimen in my life" - Participant experiences with a programme of community walking and home-based circuit training for intermittent claudication.

Introduction: The WALKSTRONG trial includes a programme of community walking and home-based circuit training which has been developed for people with intermittent claudication (IC). The aim of the present study was to determine the acceptability of the programme for those who took part, by gleaning their opinions and experiences.

Methods: All participants eligible for the WALKSTRONG trial were approached regarding completing a semi-structured interview, selected from three groups: A) programme completers, B) programme withdrawers and C) programme decliners.

Correction: A systematic review of exercise testing in patients with intermittent claudication: A focus on test standardisation and reporting quality in randomised controlled trials of exercise interventions.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Home-based Circuit Training and Community Walking for Intermittent Claudication.

Background: Supervised exercise training is recommended for people with peripheral artery disease (PAD), yet it remains underutilized. Home-based exercise programs (HBEPs) are a potential alternative. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a full scale trial of a 12-week HBEP for people living with symptomatic PAD.

Effects of Exercise Training Response on Quality of Life and Cardiovascular Risk Factor Profiles in People With Coronary Artery Disease: Insights From the HIIT or MISS UK Trial.

Objective: To compare the characteristics of responders and nonresponders to 8 weeks of exercise training to determine differences in key cardiovascular disease outcomes in people with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Design: Secondary analysis of data from the HIIT or MISS UK trial.

Setting: Six outpatient National Health Service cardiac rehabilitation (CR) centers in the UK.

Inter- and intra-observer reliability and agreement of O2Pulse inflection during cardiopulmonary exercise testing: A comparison of subjective and novel objective methodology.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is the 'gold standard' method for evaluating functional capacity, with oxygen pulse (O2Pulse) inflections serving as a potential indicator of myocardial ischaemia. However, the reliability and agreement of identifying these inflections have not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to assess the inter- and intra-observer reliability and agreement of a subjective quantification method for identifying O2Pulse inflections during CPET, and to propose a more robust and objective novel algorithm as an alternative methodology.

Validating the Fitbit Charge 4© wearable activity monitor for use in physical activity interventions.

Objectives: Commercially available wearable activity monitors can promote physical activity behaviour. Clinical trials typically quantify physical activity with research grade activity monitors prior to testing interventions utilising commercially available wearable activity monitors aimed at increasing step count. Therefore, it is important to test the agreement of these two types of activity monitors.

Cost-effectiveness of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) vs Moderate Intensity Steady-State (MISS) Training in UK Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Objective: To perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) compared with moderate intensity steady-state (MISS) training in people with coronary artery disease (CAD) attending cardiac rehabilitation (CR).

Design: Secondary cost-effectiveness analysis of a prospective, assessor-blind, parallel group, multi-center RCT.

Setting: Six outpatient National Health Service cardiac rehabilitation centers in England and Wales, UK.

High-intensity interval training in cardiac rehabilitation: a multi-centre randomized controlled trial.

Background: There is a lack of international consensus regarding the prescription of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for people with coronary artery disease (CAD) attending cardiac rehabilitation (CR).

Aims: To assess the clinical effectiveness and safety of low-volume HIIT compared with moderate-intensity steady-state (MISS) exercise training for people with CAD.

Methods And Results: We conducted a multi-centre RCT, recruiting 382 patients from 6 outpatient CR centres.

Effects of exercise prescribed at different levels of claudication pain on walking performance in patients with intermittent claudication: a protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Peripheral artery disease affects over 236 million people globally and the classic symptom is intermittent claudication (IC) which is associated with reduction in physical activity. The evidence that supervised exercise programmes (SEPs) improve pain-free and maximal walking distance is irrefutable. However, adherence rates are low with exercise-related pain cited as a contributing factor.

A systematic review of exercise intervention reporting quality and dose in studies of intermittent claudication.

Background: Exercise therapy is an important treatment option for people with intermittent claudication (IC). Appropriate reporting of exercise interventions in populations with IC within randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is important to ensure that research can be translated into clinical practice. Therefore, the purpose of our review is to evaluate the reporting of exercise interventions in RCTs of exercise therapy in patients with IC.

Is It Really Home-Based? A Commentary on the Necessity for Accurate Definitions across Exercise and Physical Activity Programmes.

: There is wide discrepancy in how published research defines and reports home-based exercise programmes. Studies consisting of fundamentally different designs have been labelled as home-based, making searching for relevant literature challenging and time consuming. This issue has been further highlighted by an increased demand for these programmes following the COVID-19 pandemic and associated government-imposed lockdowns.

A Systematic Review of Exercise Prescription in Patients with Intermittent Claudication: Does Pain Matter?

Background: Current guidelines for intermittent claudication advocate exercise at moderate to maximal claudication pain. However, adherence rates to supervised exercise programmes (SEP) remain poor and claudication pain is a contributing factor. Limited evidence suggests that moderate or pain-free exercise may be just as beneficial and may be better tolerated.

Provision of exercise services in patients with peripheral artery disease in the United Kingdom.

Objectives: Supervised exercise programmes (SEPs) are a vital treatment for people with intermittent claudication, leading improvements in walking distance and quality of life and are recommended in multiple national and international guidelines. We aimed to evaluate the use and structure of SEPs in the United Kingdom (UK).

Design: We conducted an anonymous online survey using the Jisc platform comprising of 40 questions.

Love is in the hair: arginine methylation of human hair proteins as novel cardiovascular biomarkers.

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death worldwide. Extensive cardiovascular biomarkers are available using blood tests but very few, if any, investigations have described non-invasive tests for cardiovascular biomarkers based on readily available hair samples. Here we show, first, that human hair proteins are post-translationally modified by arginine methylation (ArgMe).

A systematic review of exercise testing in patients with intermittent claudication: A focus on test standardisation and reporting quality in randomised controlled trials of exercise interventions.

A systematic review was conducted to identify the range of terminology used in studies to describe maximum walking distance and the exercise testing protocols, and testing modalities used to measure it in patients with intermittent claudication. A secondary aim was to assess the implementation and reporting of the exercise testing protocols. CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched.

Does exercise prescription based on estimated heart rate training zones exceed the ventilatory anaerobic threshold in patients with coronary heart disease undergoing usual-care cardiovascular rehabilitation? A United Kingdom perspective.

Background: In the United Kingdom (UK), exercise intensity is prescribed from a fixed percentage range (% heart rate reserve (%HRR)) in cardiac rehabilitation programmes. We aimed to determine the accuracy of this approach by comparing it with an objective, threshold-based approach incorporating the accurate determination of ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT). We also aimed to investigate the role of baseline cardiorespiratory fitness status and exercise testing mode dependency (cycle .

High-intensity interval training versus moderate-intensity steady-state training in UK cardiac rehabilitation programmes (HIIT or MISS UK): study protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation.

Introduction: Current international guidelines for cardiac rehabilitation (CR) advocate moderate-intensity exercise training (MISS, moderate-intensity steady state). This recommendation predates significant advances in medical therapy for coronary heart disease (CHD) and may not be the most appropriate strategy for the 'modern' patient with CHD. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) appears to be a safe and effective alternative, resulting in greater improvements in peak oxygen uptake (VO).

Oxygen Costs of the Incremental Shuttle Walk Test in Cardiac Rehabilitation Participants: An Historical and Contemporary Analysis.

Background: The incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) is a standardised assessment for cardiac rehabilitation. Three studies have reported oxygen costs (VO)/metabolic equivalents (METs) of the ISWT. In spite of classic representations from these studies graphically showing curvilinear VO responses to incremented walking speeds, linear regression techniques (also used by the American College of Sports Medicine [ACSM]) have been used to estimate VO.