Safety and feasibility of maximal physical testing in rheumatic diseases: a cross-sectional study with 5,910 assessments.

The purpose of the study was to report on the safety and feasibility of the application of maximal physical tests in a heterogeneous cohort of rheumatic patients. This is a 5-year retrospective descriptive report on the incidence of events associated with maximal physical testing from 536 patients, totalizing 5,910 tests. Tests were classified as cardiopulmonary, muscle strength, and physical functioning tests.

Exercise as an adjuvant treatment in persistent active polymyositis.

Objectives: A growing number of studies have suggested that exercise may promote therapeutic effects in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. This prospective case series study aimed to report on the effects of exercise in patients with persistent active myositis.

Methods: Three patients with persistent active polymyositis were submitted to a 12-week supervised exercise program comprising both aerobic and strength exercises.

Cardiac autonomic impairment and chronotropic incompetence in fibromyalgia.

Introduction: We aimed to gather knowledge on the cardiac autonomic modulation in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) in response to exercise and to investigate whether this population suffers from chronotropic incompetence (CI).

Methods: Fourteen women with FM (age: 46 ± 3 years; body mass index (BMI): 26.6 ± 1.