Introduction on Assessment for Exercise Prescription in Heart Failure
One of the most challenging nonpharmacological interventions to face heart failure (HF) and its consequent hallmark exercise intolerance is exercise training (ET), which is an approach used since early 1990s in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) to mitigate the abnormal pathophysiology of cardiac failure and its influence on clinical outcomes.1,2 Its practice has been more recently extended to HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) as this population3 is similarly limited by fatigue and dyspnoea. ET benefits involve multiple organ systems, but the extent and targets of ET vary according to the protocol used.4 ET can be planned according to different modalities (bike or treadmill); types (endurance versus resistance or their combination); intensity (continuous low or moderate intensity, or high intensity interval); frequency (weekly volume) and session dose or duration. Frequency and dose of ET are intuitively and casually dependent on the intensity, i.e. for the lower intensity the most frequent and longer session.
The purpose of this review is to briefly describe: how to plan a training session and determine the correct ET intensity level or domain; how to assess benefits of exercise prescription by monitoring functional capacity and its related phenotypes; and how to identify subjects who – despite adherence to the programme – are non- or poor-responders to this multilevel intervention.