Abstract
Heart failure represents the
physiopathological condition in which the heart is
no longer capable of pumping enough blood for
the tissue metabolism, or it can only do it by
raising the filling pressure (vein pressure).
The effort intolerance represents an
almost universal manifestation of heart failure,
and is defined by a drop in the effort capacity.
The methods that are most recommended and
used during physical therapy rehabilitation
treatments for heart failure patients are the
stationary bicycle exercise, treadmill exercise, or
the mixed exercises, combining inside the same
treatment the bicycle and the treadmill exercises.
The experiment was conducted on a group
of 100 patients, of which 57 men and 43 women,
diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
All the patients comprised in the study
took the physical therapy treatment and were in a
stable clinical state.
The physical therapy sessions we applied
to the patients were structured in three parts:
warm-up part, fundamental part, and closing part.
The physical therapy treatments applied to
the studied patients were approximately the same,
as the content was concerned, but the machines
we used were three:
- The treadmill;
- The stationary bicycle;
- Mixed (comprising treadmill and bicycle
effort).
The final results have shown an increase
in the effort capacity of the patients, the initial
test results being clearly inferior to the ones in the
final tests.
All three types of physical therapy
protocols used in the study are effective,
triggering an improvement in the general effort
capacity of the heart failure patients.