Abstract

Heart failure (HF) patients represent a burgeoning population within cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs. Current guidelines recommend that HF patients exercise at 40-60% of their heart rate reserve (HRR) during the first three weeks of an outpatient CR program, and 50-80% of their HRR thereafter. Peak exercise testing, the gold standard for determining individual exercise prescription, is often impractical due to costs, expertise and technological resources required. Arbitrary methods to prescribe exercise intensity such as resting HR plus 20 or 30 bpm (RHR+20 or RHR+30) are recommended for inpatients following a myocardial infarction or recovering from heart surgery. This approach has been repurposed by outpatient CR programs to prescribe exercise intensity for HF patients, yet its efficacy has not been examined. The study examined the appropriateness of RHR+20/30 for prescribing exercise intensity and improving functional capacity for HF patients in an outpatient CR program.

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