Peripheral Arterial Disease Patients Improve Walking
Endurance with Treadmill Exercise
Up to 1 in 5 senior citizens may have PAD;
Researchers conclude physicians should recommend supervised treadmill
exercise for PAD patients
Jan.
13, 2009 - Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), who
participated in supervised treadmill exercise, improved their walking
endurance and quality of life, according to a study in the January 14
issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The treadmill exercise also improved walking
performance for PAD patients without the classic symptoms of pain in the
leg muscles, which many senior citizens think is just a symptom of
aging, when it is actually PAD.
Among senior citizens, people aged 65 and older, 12
to 20 percent may have PAD, according to the National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute. As you people get older, their risk for PAD increases.
Older age combined with other risk factors, such as smoking or diabetes,
also puts people at higher risk.
Lower extremity PAD (a condition that develops when
the arteries that supply blood to the legs become completely or
partially blocked as a result of plaque build-up) affects 1 in 16 U.S.
adults 40 years or older.
Men and women with PAD have greater functional
impairment and more rapid rates of functional decline than those who do
not have PAD, according to background information in the article.
Most patients with PAD do not have symptoms of
intermittent claudication (pain in the leg muscles that comes and goes),
but PAD patients without these symptoms have greater functional
impairment and functional decline than those without PAD.
No prior exercise interventions have been tested on
PAD participants with and without symptoms of intermittent claudication.
Additionally, benefits of lower extremity resistance (strength) training
for PAD patients are not well established.
Silent killer bringing grave results that can
include gangrene, amputation, or death
By Dr. Gary M. Ansel
July
10, 2008 - Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), a condition synonymous
with the clogging of arteries in the bodys lower extremities, is often
referred to as a silent killer that can bring with it potentially
grave results that include gangrene, amputation, or death.
Read
more...
Mary M. McDermott, M.D., of the Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and colleagues
conducted a study to determine whether supervised treadmill exercise and
lower extremity-resistance training improves functional performance and
other outcomes among participants with PAD with and without intermittent
claudication symptoms.
The randomized controlled clinical trial included
156 patients with PAD who were randomly assigned for six months to -
● supervised treadmill exercise,
● lower extremity resistance training, or
● a control group.
Patients were tested for six-minute walk
performance and a short physical performance battery, as well as -
● brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (a measurement of change in
the diameter of an artery in the arm),
● treadmill walking performance,
● the Walking Impairment Questionnaire, and
● the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey physical functioning (SF-36 PF)
score.
For the 6-minute walk, those in the supervised
treadmill exercise group increased their distance from baseline by an
average of about 69 feet vs. those in the control group, whose distance
decreased from baseline by an average of 49 feet, for an average
increase of 118 feet between groups.
Participants in the resistance training group
increased their distance walked by 41 feet compared with the control
group.
Those in the lower extremity resistance training
group did not experience change in their 6-minute walk performance
compared with the control group.
There were no differences in change in short
physical performance battery score between the treadmill exercise and
control groups or between the resistance training and the control groups
at the 6-month follow-up.
Participants in the treadmill exercise group had
more favorable changes in brachial arterial flow-mediated dilation than
the control group, whereas changes among participants in the resistance
training group were not different from the control group.
Those in the treadmill exercise and the resistance
training groups each had significantly greater increases in average
maximum treadmill walking time at the 6-month follow-up than the control
group.
The treadmill exercise group had significantly
greater average improvement in their SF-36 physical functioning score
and in their walking impairment distance score than the control group.
The resistance training group had greater average
improvement in their SF-36 physical functioning score and in their
walking impairment distance and stair climbing scores than the control
group.
"Based on findings reported in this trial,
physicians should recommend supervised treadmill exercise programs for
PAD patients, regardless of whether they have classic symptoms of
intermittent claudication," the authors conclude.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
Jan.
13, 2009 - Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), who
participated in supervised treadmill exercise, improved their walking
endurance and quality of life, according to a study in the January 14
issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. 