Exercise Therapy to Reduce Heart Failure Symptoms; Sorting Mechanisms of Benefit
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03648762. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The purpose of this research study is to better understand how exercise training in older adults (≥65 years) with heart failure (HF) affects skeletal muscle both intrinsically and in respect to its impact on functional capacity. While many conceptualize HF as a pathophysiology that exclusively affects the heart, skeletal muscle atrophy and weakening are also elemental to the disease. While reduced exercise capacity is typically associated with HF, this may be related more to disease effects in skeletal muscle than the heart. This is a clinical study that focuses on exercise training which compares functional endpoints before and after training. Patients are randomized to one of three exercise training interventions (aerobic vs. aerobic and strength vs. inspiratory muscle training) for 12 weeks and are assessed pre- and post-training to determine if any differences occur in their skeletal muscle and functional capacity. Skeletal muscle biopsies before and after the exercise training intervention in order to study changes in skeletal muscle histology and biology. Functional endpoints in this study include ventilatory gas indices from cardiopulmonary exercise testing, lower body strength testing, grip strength, sit-to-stand, six-minute-walk distance, gait speed, inspiratory muscle strength, and quality of life and physical activity-oriented questionnaires, including the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, Duke Activity Status Index, and CHAMPS Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Adults. Body composition is measured with Dual Energy X-ray (DXA) scanning. Skeletal muscle biopsies are completed in the vastus lateralis of the non-dominant leg to assess histology and biologic endpoints.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03648762
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 65 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- Aerobic Exercise Intervention Behavioral
- Combined Aerobic and Strength Exercise Intervention Behavioral
- Inspiratory Muscle Training Exercise Intervention Behavioral
Behavioral
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 50 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- May 7, 2017
- Primary completion
- Sep 29, 2019
- Completion
- Sep 29, 2019
- Last update posted
- Jun 23, 2024
2017 – 2019
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 2
- U.S. states
- 2
- U.S. cities
- 2
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VA Boston Healthcare System Jamaica Plain Campus, Jamaica Plain, MA | Boston | Massachusetts | 02130 | — |
| VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | 15240 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03648762, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jun 23, 2024 · Synced Sep 19, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03648762 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.