Influence of controlled vascular training on the pain free walking distance and plasmaviscosity in patients suffering from peripheral arterial occlusive disease

Abstract

Does controlled vascular training influence plasmaviscosity and the pain free walking distance in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (paod) Fontaine stage II?37 patients, 24 men and 13 women with a mean age of 64.5 years SD 8.5 took part in ambulant vascular training over a period of 12 months.Before, after 6 months and after 12 months, pain free (pfwd) and maximum walking distance (mwd) was measured using a standardized treadmill program. Also ankle-brachials systolic pressure index (a-bspi), transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcPO2) and plasmaviscosity (pv) were measured.Pfwd increased from 212 SD 143 m to 371 SD 249 m (p<0.02). TcPO2 increased during training, but without statistically significance. A-bspi increased between the first 6 months of training statistically significant. Before training pv was 1.31 mPa s SD 0.10, after training period of 6 months it was 1.27 mPa s SD 0.11 (p=0.06) and 12 months later it was 1.28 SD 0.11 mPa s (p=0.35). The improvement of pfwd and the decrease of pv correlates (r=-0.39, p=0.05).In most patients, arterial vascular training improves pfwd and mwd. Simultaneously to the increase of the walking distances plasmaviscosity decreases and crurobrachial indexes increases. We found a coupling between improvement of pfwd and pv. Pv seems to participate in improvement of leg hemodynamics in patients with paod.