Heart Failure ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Effect of 10-Week Supervised Moderate-Intensity Intermittent vs. Continuous Aerobic Exercise Programs on Vascular Adhesion Molecules in Patients with Heart Failure ABSTRACT Aksoy S, Findikoglu G, Ardic F, Rota S, Dursunoglu D: Effect of 10-week supervised moderate-intensity intermittent vs. continuous aerobic exercise programs on vascular adhesion molecules in patients with heart failure. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2015;94:898Y911. Objective: Abnormal expression of cellular adhesion molecules may be re- lated to endothelial dysfunction, a key feature in chronic heart failure. This study compares the effects of 10-wk supervised moderate-intensity continuous aerobic exercise (CAE) and intermittent aerobic exercise (IAE) programs on markers of endothelial damage, disease severity, functional and metabolic status, and quality- of-life in chronic heart failure patients. Design: Fifty-seven patients between 41 and 81 yrs with New York Heart As- sociation class IIYIII chronic heart failure and with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35%Y55% were randomized into three groups: nonexercising control, CAE, and IAE, which exercised three times a week for 10 wks. Endothelial damage was assessed by serum markers of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, serum intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and nitric oxide; disease severity was measured by left ven- tricular ejection fraction and N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide; metabolic status was evaluated by body composition analysis and lipid profile levels; functional status was evaluated by cardiorespiratory exercise stress test and 6-min walking distance; quality-of-life was assessed with Left Ventricular Dysfunction-36 and Short-Form 36 questionnaires at the baseline and at the end of the 10th week. Results: Significant decreases in serum vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 or serum intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in IAE and CAE groups after training were found, respectively. Resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure, peak systolic and diastolic blood pressure, 6-min walking distance, and the mental health and vitality components of Short-Form 36 improved in the CAE group, whereas left ventricular ejection fraction and 6-min walking distance improved in the IAE group compared with the control group. Conclusions: Both moderate-intensity CAE and IAE programs significantly reduced serum markers of adhesion molecules and prevented the change in VO 2 in patients with chronic heart failure. Key Words: sVCAM-1, sICAM-1, NO, Cardiac Rehabilitation Authors: Sibel Aksoy, MD Gulin Findikoglu, MD, PhD Fusun Ardic, MD Simin Rota, MD Dursun Dursunoglu, MD Affiliations: From the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (SA, GF, FA), Biochemistry (SR), and Cardiology (DD), Faculty of Medicine, University of Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey. Correspondence: All correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to: Gulin Findikoglu, MD, PhD, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey. Disclosures: The following were the authors_ contributions to this study: SA, acquisition of data; GF, contributions to conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, or revising it critically for important intellectual content; FA, revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published; SR, biochemical analysis and acquisition of data; DD, acquisition of data. Funded by Pamukkale University Scientific Research Fund with Project Number 2012TPF009. This study will be presented at the 25th National Congress of PMR, 2015, Turkey. Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article. 0894-9115/15/9410-0898 American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Copyright * 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000000306 898 Am. J. Phys. Med. Rehabil. & Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2015 Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.