Pulmonary Hypertension and Exercise

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing can be a useful tool for clinicians working with pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients. Exercise magnifies numerous cardiopulmonary decompensations, which can help inform diagnoses, assess degrees of physical impairment, evaluate exertional dyspnea, and estimate prognoses for PH patients. Supervised exercise training also holds promise in PH, because it is safe for patients and feasible and may improve key prognostic outcomes that relate to improvements in quality of life and survival. Still, few clinical trials have evaluated the potential therapeutic effects of exercise training, and future trials may benefit from integrating programming that focuses on light-intensity endurance, strength, and respiratory training.