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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Home-Based Prescribed Pulmonary Exercise in Patients with Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Published on: August 24, 2019
Effects of a rehabilitation program on skeletal muscle function in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension
Vincent Mainguy1, François Maltais, Didier Saey
1Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, chemin Sainte-Foy, Canada.
Introduction:
A majority of patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) display persistent exercise intolerance despite current therapies. Whether a rehabilitation program elicits favorable changes in muscle function which would partly explain improvements in exercise tolerance of IPAH patients remains unknown. We performed this study to assess the effect of a 12-week rehabilitation program on skeletal muscle characteristics and exercise tolerance in patients with IPAH.
Methods:
Exercise capacity measured by the 6-minute walk test and by the cycle endurance test (CET), limb muscle cross-sectional area, quadriceps function by maximal voluntary contraction and magnetic stimulation (potentiated twitches), and molecular muscle characteristics by quadriceps biopsy of 5 IPAH patients were assessed before and after a 12-week rehabilitation program.
Results:
Following training, improvements in all patients were observed for the 6-minute walk test distance, from 441 (75) to 499 (85) m, P = .01, and the CET time, from 429 (239) to 633 (380) seconds, P = .16. Minute ventilation assessed at isotime during CET decreased by 15(11)%, P = .05. This was related to both decreased carbon dioxide output and (Equation is included in full-text article.)E/(Equation is included in full-text article.)co2. These improvements were associated with decreased type IIx fiber proportion, 31(8)% to 23(10)%, P = .05.
Discussion:
Peripheral muscle characteristic improvements may contribute to the clinical benefit observed following a rehabilitation program in IPAH.
