Exercise Prehabilitation in Congenital Heart Disease (ACE-CHD)

July 8, 2026 updated by: Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

A Randomised-controlled Trial to Assess the Impact of Prehabilitation and a Structured Exercise Programme on Cardiorespiratory Performance in Adults Awaiting Elective Surgery for Congenital Heart Disease: The ACE-CHD Trial.

Around 8-12 in every 1000 babies are born with an abnormal heart, known as a congenital heart defect (CHD). Thanks to major advances in medical and surgical care, most babies born with CHD now live into adulthood.

As people with CHD get older, many need repeated heart operations. We now know from other areas of medicine that "prehabilitation" - a short, structured exercise programme completed before surgery - can improve fitness and help patients cope better with major operations. However, this approach has never been tested in adults with CHD.

We are running a randomised controlled trial to find out whether a prehabilitation programme can improve physical fitness before heart surgery in adults with CHD. Participants will be randomly assigned to usual care or a prehabilitation group. Those in the prehabilitation group will follow a tailored, supervised exercise plan for several weeks before surgery. All patients undergoing cardiac surgery routinely complete a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) as part of their standard pre-operative assessment. CPET is a well-established test that shows how the heart and lungs respond to increasing levels of exercise. During the test, participants exercise on a bike while their breathing, heart rate, and overall physiological response are continuously monitored. The results of each participant's routine CPET will be used to guide the individualised exercise programme in the intervention group. Exercise levels prescribed in the study will not exceed the intensity already safely achieved during the routine CPET, ensuring that activity remains within clinically assessed limits.

Participants in the trial will complete an additional second CPET following the trial period.

Our key question is whether a tailored exercise programme can improve fitness in adults with CHD before heart surgery, and whether this approach is feasible, acceptable and practical to deliver, including successful recruitment and measurable physiological improvements.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

32

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults with congenital heart disease requiring cardiac surgery via sternotomy or thoracotomy.
  • Capacity to provide informed consent.
  • Ability and willingness to engage in exercise-based interventions.
  • Peak VO2 <30ml/kg/min at preoperative exercise assessment.
  • Participant reached peak VO2 in preoperative exercise assessment (RER >1.0).
  • Ability to communicate in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Surgery is scheduled for a date that precludes participation in the programme - surgical date is <9 weeks away.
  • Pregnancy of <6 months postpartum.
  • History of pneumothorax within the last 3 months.
  • Resting oxygen saturations <94%.
  • Uncorrected right-to-left shunt with exercise.
  • Fontan physiology.
  • Pulmonary hypertension.
  • Critical valvular obstruction.
  • Sustained ventricular arrhythmia.
  • Severe aortic dilatation (>45mm in Marfan syndrome or hereditary aortopathy, >50mm in bicuspid or tricuspid aortic valves).

The oldest person operated upon by the ACHD service was 78 years old. Upper age is not an exclusion criteria.

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Prehabilitation Arm
Participants will undertake a bespoke 6-week prehabilitation programme designed with an exercise physiologist. The programme is individualised based on CPET results, baseline activity, and patient capability. It includes cardiovascular, respiratory, and resistance training. Aerobic exercise is prescribed using a progressive Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) approach, targeting 150-300 minutes/week of moderate-intensity activity in line with ESC guidance, with warm-up and cool-down. Respiratory training is delivered using an inspiratory muscle trainer. Resistance training targets major muscle groups (15-30 repetitions) using bands, with additional handgrip exercises. Equipment is provided. Participants also receive dietary and lifestyle advice with ongoing clinical support.
Other: Exercise prehabilitation
Participants undertake a bespoke 6-week prehabilitation programme designed with an exercise physiologist, individualised to CPET results, baseline activity, and patient capability. It includes aerobic (progressive RPE-based, targeting 150-300 min/week moderate intensity with warm-up/cool-down), respiratory (inspiratory muscle training), and resistance training (major muscle groups, 15-30 repetitions, plus handgrip exercises). Equipment is provided. Participants also receive dietary and lifestyle advice with ongoing clinical support. Anxiety is addressed by the research team, with referral to psychology if required. Adherence is supported with at least fortnightly contact (phone/email/text). All participants undergo repeat CPET at 7-9 weeks. Participants are encouraged to continue exercises until surgery where feasible.
No Intervention: Control Arm
Standard preoperative management, which includes routine surgical clinic assessments, medical clinic appointments, preoperative nursing reviews and access to the ACHD nurse helpline as normal.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Within-participant change in peak VO2 as measured on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) at baseline and follow-up.
Time Frame: Baseline and follow-up CPETs (up to 9 weeks apart).
The primary outcome will be the within-participant change in peak VO2 as measured on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) at baseline and at follow-up.
Baseline and follow-up CPETs (up to 9 weeks apart).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Individaul change in forced vital capacity (litres) at baseline and follow-up.
Time Frame: Baseline and follow-up CPETs (up to 9 weeks apart)
Best of three acceptable attempts after usual inhaled medications (if taken) at baseline and follow-up. This is a routine measurement on a CPET at LHCH.
Baseline and follow-up CPETs (up to 9 weeks apart)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Collaborators

Liverpool John Moores University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Julia D Jones, MD, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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 (Estimated)

August 10, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 8, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 8, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 14, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 14, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 8, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1696

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Pooled data will be published.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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