Blood flow restricted exercise training in CHF
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Blood Flow Restriction training in chronic heart failure: an effective training strategy?
IRAS ID
229188
Contact name
Klaus Witte
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Chronic heart failure (CHF), is a condition in which the heart fails in its function as a pump to deliver oxygenated blood round the body. An important symptom of CHF is exercise intolerance due to sensations of breathlessness and tiredness that means performing day-to-day tasks can become difficult. We can measure how ‘exercise intolerant’ a person is by measuring their peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) during an exercise test, which tells us how well all the systems involved in delivering O2 to the exercising muscles work.
Exercise training in CHF has the potential to increase VO2peak, and the function of systems involved in delivering O2 from the atmosphere to the exercising muscles, which would be expected to increase the ability to perform tasks of daily living. However, exercise training remains largely underutilised in contemporary CHF management in the UK. Therefore novel and practical training interventions that are effective at maintaining or even improving VO2peak in CHF patients are required to improve prognostic outcomes, alleviate symptoms, and improve quality of life.
Blood flow restriction (BFR) training is a novel strategy in which a pressure cuff is inflated around the proximal portion of the exercising limbs (e.g. at the top of the arms or legs) during exercise or in recovery periods between exercise bouts. This training regime has previously shown successful results in improving VO2peak in young, active adults during recovery periods between bouts of high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
The purpose of this pilot study is firstly to investigate whether BFR in combination with HIIT is a feasible and tolerable exercise training strategy in CHF patients. This study also aims to identify whether such a training intervention over a ~4-week period (~2 sessions per week) results in improvements in the different systems involved in delivering O2 to the working muscles (e.g. function of the heart and blood vessels), overall measures of exercise tolerance (i.e. VO2peak), and quality of life.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0348
Date of REC Opinion
14 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion