Home Rehabilitation Improves Cardiac Effort in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
University of Rochester
Summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a home rehabilitation program for patients diagnosed with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) will decrease Cardiac Effort (number of heart beats used during 6-minute walk test/walk distance) and improve quality of life. Ultimately, this information could help improve the management of patients with PAH.
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Follows at University of Rochester Medical Center Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic. * Adult patients (\>18 years old) with right heart catheterization confirmed pulmonary hypertension (PAH) on stable vasodilator dosing for at least 30 days. No planned titrations will occur during the 12-week study. If during the study, the treating physician feels it is necessary for safety reasons to adjust dosing, the subject will remain in their assigned group. * Access to a smart phone or email to receive daily messages. If patients do not have access to either, we will offer a smart…
Interventions
- BehavioralExercise
The intervention group will receive daily activity messages sent through SMS text message or email.The messages will provide daily exercises with heart rate guidance.
- BehavioralStandard of Care
The control group will receive daily non-descript messages to help with blinding and to eliminate the confounding variable of daily contact. The messages will not include activity tasks and will include phrases such as "I hope you have a good day".
Location
- University of Rochester Medical CenterRochester, New York