Exercise training combined with electromyostimulation in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic heart failure: A randomized trial

Application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation of the lower limb skeletal muscles in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…The conducted research also showed that the combination of classical cardiac rehabilitation (based on physical training) and NMES of skeletal muscles of the lower limbs does not bring about significant improvements of exercise tolerance in patients with CHF in comparison with traditional rehabilitation [20]. These results may suggest that physical training is the most important element of cardiac rehabilitation.…”

“…Simultaneous electrical stimulation of the quadriceps and gastrocnemius muscles was performed most frequently [9,14,18,20,21]. Simultaneous stimulation of the quadriceps and the ischiotibial muscles [13,22] or stimulation of the quadriceps muscle exclusively was performed less often [11,21].…”

“…The research demonstrated that the application of NMES in patients with CHF results in improvement of exercise tolerance indicators, such as: increased peak oxygen consumption, increased anaerobic threshold, increased duration of exercise tests and greater distance covered during the 6MWT test [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. After a series of NMES treatment sessions, increased muscle endurance was also noted in patients with CHF [12].…”

“…In rare cases, patients with class IV symptoms also participated in the research. Some of the participants were either after a heart transplant or qualified for heart transplant surgery [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…The relaxation period lasted as long as the contraction or 2-3 times longer at most [13,21,22]. The treatment sessions were performed with varying frequency -at least 5 times a week [9, 16-19, 21, 22], up to 7 times a week in some cases [13][14][15]20]. A case was also noted in which 2 sessions a day were performed [20] and one in which the sessions were relatively less frequent -3 times a week [11].…”