Impact of rehabilitation on physical activity in patients with pulmonary vascular disease

<bold>Background:</bold> Rehabilitation in patients with pulmonary vascular disease (PVD) such as pulmonary arterial or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (PAH, CTEPH) is becoming increasingly important in disease management. Rehabilitation is effective for enhancing exercise performance, but whether rehabilitation has an effect on physical activity (PA) remains to be investigated. <bold>Methods:</bold> This prospective nested trial investigated the effect of a 3-week in-patient PVD-specific standardized rehabilitation program on PA-level. Stable patients with PAH/CTEPH on disease-targeted treatment were included and assessed before and after rehabilitation with an accelerometer (SenseWear, BodyMedia) worn on the upper arm for at least 3 consecutive days. <bold>Results:</bold> We evaluated PA-levels of 18 patients (15 PAH, 3 CTEPH, 11 female) with am mean±SD age of 56±17 years and am BMI of 25±7 kg/m². Patients revealed no significant difference in steps/day from before to after rehabilitation (4827±2714 to 4852±2769 steps/day, p>0.05) nor changes in PA-level concerning active energy expenditure (1608 vs. 1534 joules, p>0.05). <bold>Conclusion:</bold> A PVD-specific supervised inpatient rehabilitation program is improving exercise performance but showed no effect on commonly assessed PA-level. Future studies should focus on specific intervention programs for increasing daily activity in PVD-patients.