Cardiac Rehabilitation in Patients With Continuous Flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices:Rehab VAD Trial (RehabVAD)

August 17, 2015 updated by: Dennis J. Kerrigan, Henry Ford Health System

Cardiac rehabilitation programs improve mortality, functional capacity, and quality of life, for a variety of patients with heart disease. It stands to reason that patients with LVADs might therefore also benefit from the same structured exercise training, education, and clinical surveillance. One potential benefit of cardiac rehabilitation in this patient population is reversal of the skeletal muscle atrophy that occurs due to extended periods of poor peripheral perfusion (i.e. before implantation) and prolonged sedentary behavior.

Purpose: The purpose of this proposed study is to examine the effects of a 6-week exercise program on cardiorespiratory fitness, quality of life, and device flow rate in patients with recently implanted LVADs.

Methods: 30 patients with recently implanted LVADs will be referred by the Henry Ford Hospital Advanced Heart Failure Program once the patient is deemed appropriate for exercise. Before enrollment into cardiac rehabilitation patients will undergo a six minute walk test and graded exercise stress test on a treadmill to determine exercise capacity. Additionally, a quality of life questionnaire will be given.

Following the stress test, patients will be randomized (2 to 1 ratio) into either cardiac rehabilitation or control. Those chosen to be in the control group will be encouraged to maintain daily activities; those in the rehabilitation group will partake in 6 weeks of a standard cardiac rehabilitation program. This will consist of 3 days a week of supervised exercise as well as education regarding diet and lifestyle modifications.

At 6 weeks after randomization both groups will again undergo fitness assessments and retake the quality of life questionnaires.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

26

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Michigan
      • Detroit, Michigan, United States, 48202
        • William Clay Ford Center for Athletic Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Continuous flow left ventricular assist device
  • Implanted within the past six months
  • Approval from cardiologist to participate in cardiac rehabilitation
  • Age greater or equal to 18 years
  • No history of cardiac rehabilitation participation since receiving a LVAD

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Orthopedic limitations to perform exercise
  • Current infection related to LVAD
  • Severe anemia
  • Recent CVA related to LVAD implant that affects ability to exercise
  • Unable to attend cardiac rehabilitation at Henry Ford Hospital
  • Uncontrolled metabolic disorders

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Rehab
Patients randomized into early cardiac rehabilitation
Behavioral: Cardiac Rehabilitation
A standard cardiac rehabilitation program consisting of 3 days per week of supervised exercise and education.
No Intervention: Control
No cardiac rehabilitation until after 6 week post assessment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cardiopulmonary fitness
Time Frame: six weeks
Peak VO2 as measured on a treadmill using gas exchange
six weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Quality of life
Time Frame: six weeks
six weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Henry Ford Health System

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Dennis J Kerrigan, PhD, Henry Ford Health System

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 23, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

April 25, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 19, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 17, 2015

Last Verified

August 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • hfhs-pc-RehabVAD

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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