Pulmonary Hypertension: Efficacy of a 3 Week Inpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation on Physical Condition, Body Composition and Health Related Quality of Life - an Observational Study

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) impairs physical condition (PC), body composition (BC) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Specific pharmacological treatment and - in selected patients, refractory to agents - lung or combined heart and lung transplantation can improve physical functioning and long term survival. Initial trials with limited numbers of patients were encouraging. Investigation of larger cohorts is essential to assess the efficacy of rehabilitation programmes in PH.

We hypothesize that a 3 week inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves PC, BC and HRQOL in patients with PH in functional classes (FC) II and III. Critical ill patients with a functional class IV are excluded. All patients with PH undergo a 3-week inpatient rehabilitation program (interval bicycle and strength training, physiotherapy, psychological support, education). Exercise testing (peak work load (PWL) 6-min-walk distance), body composition (bioimpedance analysis BIA: lean body mass (LBM), body cell mass (BCM), BCM/LBM ratio, phase angle (PA)) and HRQOL (SF 36 questionnaire) are assessed at baseline and completion of PR.