Functional capacity and activity level before and after renal transplantation

Functional capacity and activity level were measured among 9 renal transplant recipients prior to transplantation (T1), 6 weeks (T2), and 16 weeks (T3) after transplantation. Functional capacity was measured by a symptom-limited treadmill test. The Human Activity Profile was used to obtain self-reported activity level. A 24% improvement in functional capacity was found from T1 to T2 with only a 5% improvement from T2 to T3 (p less than .001). In contrast, significant improvement in activity level was not present until after T2. Although activity level increased from T1 to T3 (p less than .01), it continued to be low in comparison with age/gender matched normative data.