Acupuncture improves exercise tolerance of patients with heart failure: a placebo-controlled pilot study

Abstract

Acupuncture may become an additional therapeutic strategy to improve the exercise tolerance of patients with CHF, potentially by improving skeletal muscle function.

Intervenções não farmacológicas para melhor qualidade de vida na insuficiência cardíaca: revisão integrativa

“…Another study was performed by nurses in partnership with physical therapists (24) or physicians (22) , followed by nurses working with physical therapists, physicians and occupational therapists (18) . Six studies did not describe which professionals performed the interventions (13,(26)(27)(28)(29)34) . In four studies, interventions were performed only by physicians (16)(17)25,33) or physicians working Domingo et al (13) , 2011…”

“…Regarding year of publication, nine articles were dated 2012 (15)(16)18,(20)(21)(22)(29)(30)(31) , followed by years 2011 (n=6) (11)(12)(13)17,19,23,33) , 2010 (n=4) (24)(25)32,34) , 2013 (n=3) (14,(27)(28) and 2008 (n=1) (26) . The articles were published in General Cardiology journals (12)(13)(16)(17)(18)20,22,(24)(25)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)34) , followed by General Clinical journals (14)(15)(26)(27)33) . Two articles were published in Nursing journals (19,23) and one was published in a Nutrition journal (21) (Chart 1).…”

“…As for languages, all articles were published in English. The selected studies were performed in the following countries: USA (n=8) (12,15,17,19,(24)(25)(32)(33) , Sweden (n=2) (18,23) , Germany (n=2) (22,34) , Brazil (n=2) (21,26) , Australia (n=2) (28)(29) , United Kingdom (n=2) (14,31) , Italy (n=2) (16,30) , Spain (n=1) (13) , Taiwan (n=1) (19) and Iran (n=1) (27) . Nurses were the professionals performing the interventions in most studies (12,(14)(15)(19)(20)32) .…”

“…Most studies (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(29)(30)(31)(33)(34) were randomized clinical trials (n=18), followed by two quasi-experimental studies (28,32) . Only one article (27) was a non-randomized clinical trial (4.3%) (Chart 1).…”

“…Nonpharmacological interventions proposed to improve the QoL of people with HF were: Remote health monitoring (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) , Instructions on health practices (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22) , Physical activity follow-up (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32) and Traditional Chinese Medicine practices (33)(34) . Chart 1 also presents characteristics of all studies, according to these categories.…”