Beneficial effects of intradialytic cardiopulmonary rehabilitation

Abstract Introduction: Patients on hemodialysis (HD) present high mortality from cardiovascular complications and high morbidity, including decreasing functional capacity and quality of life. Objective: To analyze clinical and laboratory responses of patients in HD to intradialytic cardiopulmonary rehabilitation on an outpatient basis. Methods: We evaluated 14 patients in a prospective study for 8 months using cardiopulmonary rehabilitation protocol (CRehab) consisted of intradialytic aerobic exercise with a cycle ergometer. We analyzed heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) and modified Borg scale. We evaluated cardiac function by echocardiogram, functional capacity by six minutes walk test (6MWT), and quality of life by SF-36 survey, before and after CRehab. Biochemical data and KT/Vsp were collected form medical records. Results: During CRehab, the results of HR, SBP, DBP, SpO2 and Borg scale showed no significant changes. 6MWT test showed progressive increase in the distance covered (p