In recent years it has been shown that improved exercise capacity along with the advent of new medication is essential for the reduction of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure. The purpose of this thesis was to optimize the means of measuring and quantifying exercise capacity, in particular daily physical activity, so that these can be integrated into clinical prognosis. For this we evaluated and compared different physiological indicators of exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure. There are physiologically useful associations between distance walked in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), VO2peak measured by means of cycle ergometry, step count and daily activity levels measured by means of accelerometer. There was a significant correlation of overall step count with distance walked (m) in the 6MWT, and VO2peak. Daily activity levels showed the highest accuracy of prediction along with VO2peak in identifying patients with severe heart failure (NYHA III). Therefore, both the 6MWT step count as well as daily physical activity seem suitable for evaluating exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure and can be used in telemedical patient monitoring.
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In recent years it has been shown that improved exercise capacity along with the advent of new medication is essential for the reduction of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure. The purpose of this thesis was to optimize the means of measuring and quantifying exercise capacity, in particular daily physical activity, so that these can be integrated into clinical prognosis. For this we evaluated and compared different physiological indicators of exercise capacity in patie...
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