Home-based exercise program improves normal right ventricle function in renal transplant recipients

BACKGROUND: Right ventricular function is strongly associated with clinical outcomes in populations at high cardiovascular risk. Renal Transplant Recipients have multiple coexisting comorbidities potentially involved in the biventricular dysfunction including the right ventricular chamber. Speckle tracking echocardiography is recently used to investigate the normal function of this chamber. The study aims to verify whether global longitudinal strain carries clinical and prognosis implications in the renal transplant recipients during 1 year of regular unsupervised physical activity and compared to a control group. METHODS: A group of 50 transplant recipients, aged 49.6±11.5 was submitted for 1 year to a moderate intensity of mixed exercise. All the subjects were followed by echocardiographic exam every 6 months, only 25 subjects with a high quality of image were investigated by 2D Speckle tracking strain analysis with the measurement calculated at T0, T6, and T12 months. RESULTS: Renal transplant recipients started with low values of right ventricle global longitudinal strain compared to health controls; it increased significantly (P<0.01) after 12 months of exercise, restoring the normal range. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate intensity of physical exercise, despite unsupervised, support a normal RV ventricular performance in renal transplant recipients' strain analysis contribute to plan a correct follow-up, with prognostic impact in these patients practicing physical exercise.