Exercise training as therapy for chronic heart failure.

Patients with impaired left ventricular function have a reduced exercise capacity because of dyspnoea and fatigue; and exercise testing has become an integral part of the assessment of patients with chronic heart failure in many cardiac centres.1 Over the past decade, several groups have shown that there is also a clinical benefit from using regular exercise testing and training as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of selected patients with chronic heart failure. The underlying mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effect of exercise training are now becoming apparent.