Reliability of clinical muscular endurance tests in patients with chronic heart failure

In clinical praxis it is important to be able to assess the effect of rehabilitation in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). There is therefore a need for simple clinical tests that are objective, reliable and valid measures.

The aim of this study was to examine the reliability of three muscle endurance tests for patients with CHF and to compare the results to a healthy control group.

The study included 20 patients (7 women) with CHF and 20 healthy persons. Dynamic endurance of the shoulder and calf muscle was measured as well as static shoulder endurance. All three tests were performed twice, within 5-10 days.

The reliability (rs) of the tests for the patients with CHF was between 0.90-0.99 and for the healthy persons between 0.79-0.98. There was also a significant difference in dynamic endurance in shoulder flexion and in heel-rise left leg test between patients with CHF and healthy persons.

Tests of dynamic and static endurance of the shoulder muscle and dynamic calf muscle endurance are reliable assessment tools for use in clinical practice. Patients with CHF have reduced isotonic muscular endurance compared with healthy persons.