Exercise training slows down heart rate and improves deceleration and acceleration capacity in patients with heart failure

Controlled physical training has been shown to be a valuable therapeutic addition to a pharmacological treatment in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). It is speculated that repeated physical training can improve the autonomic modulation of the cardiovascular system in patients with CHF. The present study evaluates autonomic function in patients with CHF by means of heart rate variability and the phase-rectified signal averaging of heart rate that allows the quantification of the acceleration capacity and deceleration capacity. Two groups of patients with CHF treated with comparable pharmacological medications were enrolled into this study. One group entered a 24-week training program, whereas another group remained without it. After the completion of the study, there was a significant increase of mean RR interval, high- and low-frequency power of heart rate variability, and the magnitudes of deceleration capacity and acceleration capacity only in patients who underwent the cardiac rehabilitation program with controlled physical training.