NCT03028168

Yôga and Breathing Techniques Training in Patients With Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction

Yôga and Breathing Techniques Training in Patients With Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction: Study Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 32 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 45 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Current therapies for heart failure (HF) bring together strategies to improve quality of life and exercise tolerance, as well as to reduce morbidity and mortality. Some HF patients present changes in the musculoskeletal system and inspiratory muscle weakness, which may be restored by inspiratory muscle training, thus increasing respiratory muscle strength and endurance, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2), functional capacity, respiratory responses to exercise, and quality of life. Yoga therapies have been shown to improve quality of life, inflammatory markers, and VO2 peak in HF patients, mostly with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, the effect of different yoga breathing techniques in patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) has yet to be assessed.

Detailed description

Yôga techniques without breathing control have shown to improve oxygen consumption in patients with HF, mostly HFrEF. However, almost half of HF patients present with HFpEF, and less studies have been performed in those patients. It has been recently demonstrated that HFpEF induces significant molecular, mitochondrial, histological, and functional alterations in the diaphragm and soleus, which were attenuated by exercise training . In cardiac disease and aging, several authors have shown a significant reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) in the frequency ranges associated with breathing, by using spectral analysis of heart rate (HR) and respiration.Therefore, the present randomized clinical trial (RCT) will be conducted in order to test the hypothesis that an program of yôga and specific breathing techniques with different ventilatory rhythms could be associated with improvement in inspiratory muscle responses, functional capacity, oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES), circulatory power, oscillatory ventilation, kinetics of oxygen consumption in the recovery period, distinct features of the autonomic nervous system, natriuretic peptides, echocardiographic measurements, and quality of life (QoL) in patients with HFpEF, with and without inspiratory muscle weakness (IMW).Therefore, the present randomized clinical trial (RCT) will be conducted in order to test the hypothesis that an 8-week program of yôga and specific breathing techniques with different ventilatory rhythms could be associated with improvement in inspiratory muscle responses, functional capacity, oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES), circulatory power, oscillatory ventilation, kinetics of oxygen consumption in the recovery period, distinct features of the autonomic nervous system, natriuretic peptides, echocardiographic measurements, and quality of life in patients with HFpEF, with and without IMW.

Conditions

• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Heart Failure
• Heart Failure, Diastolic

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Yôga	Intervention observing respiratory frequency (RF) of 15- 20 respiratory cycles per minute (rcpm). A standardized 7-minute final relaxation .
OTHER	Breathing technique	Intervention uses diaphragmatic breathing, observing slow respiratory frequency, between 5-8 rcpm. A standardized 7-minute final relaxation.
OTHER	Control group	Patients will be oriented to keep their pharmacological routine and daily activities, with no structured exercises. They will have to return to the hospital for post-testing after 8 weeks from randomization

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-08-01
• Primary completion: 2017-05-01
• Completion: 2017-08-01
• First posted: 2017-01-23
• Last updated: 2018-02-23

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Brazil