title: Aerobic exercise training intensity in patients with chronic heart failure: principles of assessment and prescription.
abstract: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a significant cause of worldwide mortality and morbidity, whose clinical picture is characterized by exercise intolerance and impaired quality of life. Aerobic exercise training is a well-established nonpharmacological tool improving the CHF’s pathophysiological, clinical, and prognostic picture, and prescription of an adequate training intensity is crucial to obtain both exercise-induced benefits and a reasonable control of exercise-related risk. However, clarity is still lacking regarding the definition of exercise intensity domains and the lower and upper intensity limits of prescriptible aerobic exercise in CHF patients. The purpose of this review is to provide an update of the methods for the exercise intensity assessment and continuous aerobic training intensity prescription in the CHF population, furnishing indications useful for implementation of physical rehabilitation programs in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Insuficiéncia Cardíaca e Transplante-Instituto do Coração, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (InCor HC-FMUSP)-São Paulo, Brazil. vitor.carvalho@usp.br
authors.forename: Vitor Oliveira
authors.initials: VO
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mezzani
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D005080:Exercise Test; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000503:physiopathology; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D018579:Patient Selection; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016896:Treatment Outcome