Is the 6-minute walk test a useful prognostic indicator in patients with moderate-to-severe heart failure?
The 6-minute walk test has limited usefulness as a decisional indicator in clinical practice for patients with moderate-to-severe heart failure.
In moderate-to-severe chronic heart failure patients, the 6-min walk test is not related to cardiac function and only moderately related to exercise capacity. Walking performance does not provide prognostic information which can complement or substitute for that provided by peak VO2 or NYHA class. Hence the test is of limited usefulness as a decisional indicator in clinical practice.
Cristina Opasich (Thu,) studied this question.