Arrhythmias & electrophysiologyResearch article
Acute Effects of Physical Exercise in Patients with Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Harbouring Plakophilin-2 Variants
- Twenty-five participants with definite arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) (9 female/16 male) performed different exercises while cardiorespiratory function was monitored
Authors' conclusion
Early recovery monitoring is essential to properly assess the arrhythmic burden of exercise in PKP-2 ARVC. Small muscle mass exercises showed the lowest PVC burden and cardiac load - surrogate markers of arrhythmic risk and disease progression - and therefore offer a promising path for prescribing exercise in this population. Exercise intensity guidelines for ARVC are insufficiently clear and should be refined.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with definite ARVC harbouring pathogenic plakophilin-2 variants9 female/16 male
- Participants
- Twenty-five patients
- Comparison
- early recovery phase compared with the active exercise phases
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Premature ventricular contractions (PVC) burden more than doubled during the early recovery phase compared with the active exercise phases
p < 0.001
Further findings
Occurrence of ≥ 3 PVC morphologies · active exercise phases vs early recovery phase
- active exercise phases vs early recovery phase
- 52 vs 84%, p = 0.03
PVC burden, unilateral biceps curls vs rest
- Only unilateral biceps curls did not increase PVC burden compared with rest
- P = 0.361
Cardiac load and arrhythmic burden
- Resistance exercises combined lower cardiac load and arrhythmic burden for comparable effort levels
Exercise intensity classification
- Large fluctuation, from "light" to "high intensity" for the same task, depending on the metric used
Original publication
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it