In-hospital electrical muscle stimulation for patients early after heart failure decompensation: results from a prospective randomised controlled pilot trial
Hugo Saner,
Elena Tomilovskaya,
Maria Poltavskaya,
Denis Andreev,
Victoria Sviridenko,
Ilya Giverts,
Irina Patchenskaya,
Inesa Kozlovskaya,
Gabil Orkhan Veliyev,
Abram Syrkin
Affiliations
Hugo Saner
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Elena Tomilovskaya
Sensory-Motor Physiology and Countermeasures, Institute of Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation
Maria Poltavskaya
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Denis Andreev
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Victoria Sviridenko
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Ilya Giverts
Rehabilitation, City Clinical Hospital #1, Moscow, Russian Federation
Irina Patchenskaya
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Inesa Kozlovskaya
Sensory-Motor Physiology and Countermeasures, Institute of Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation
Gabil Orkhan Veliyev
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Abram Syrkin
Department of Cardiology, Functional and Ultrasound Diagnostics of N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Clinical Medicine, I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Background Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is being evaluated as a possible alternative to exercise training to improve functional capacity in severely deconditioned patients with heart failure (HF). However, there is insufficient data on delayed effects of EMS starting early after decompensation. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a short inpatient EMS intervention in severely deconditioned patients with HF on functional capacity and quality of life (QoL) over a follow-up period of 1 month.Methods This is a prospective randomised sham-controlled pilot study. 45 patients hospitalised for decompensated systolic HF (58% men, mean age 66.4±10.2 years) were randomised to EMS (n=22) or sham stimulation (n=23) of lower limbs starting within 3 days after admission. The intervention included 7–10 sessions lasting from 30 to 90 min. The 6-minute walking test distance (6-MWTD), Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) were evaluated at baseline, discharge and after 1 month.Results All patients completed the programme with good EMS tolerance. 37 patients were included in the final analysis. At discharge, 6-MWTD improved from 206,1±61,3 to 299.5±91 m, DASI from 12.1±5.6 to 18.3±7.2 and MLHFQ from 55.6±8.5 to 34.2±9 with EMS compared with smaller improvements in the sham group (p<0.05 for all). One month after discharge, improvements in the EMS group remained significant for MLHFQ (p=0.004) and DASI (p=0.042) and statistically non-significant for 6-MWTD compared with the sham group.Conclusions Short-term in-hospital EMS leads to improvements in functional capacity and QoL in selected patients early after HF decompensation that are retained over 1 month after discharge and therefore may serve as initial intervention to improve physical capacity or as a bridge to further conventional exercise training. Larger studies are required to evaluate individual responses to an early initiation of EMS in decompensated HF as well as long-term effects.
