• Eduardo Elias Vieira de Carvalho, Daniela Caetano Costa, Júlio César Crescêncio, Giovani Luiz De Santi, Valéria Papa, Fabiana Marques, André Schmidt, José Antonio Marin-Neto, Marcus Vinícius Simões, and Lourenço Gallo Junior.
• Departamento de Clínica Médica Laboratório de Fisiologia do Exercício, Divisão de Cardiologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, USP, Brazil. carvalhoeev@usp.br
• Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2011 Jul 1; 97 (1): 59-64.

BackgroundChronic heart failure (HF) is a syndrome characterized by reduced cardiac output in relation to the metabolic needs of the organism, as well as metabolic and neurohormonal axis abnormalities. Symptoms such as fatigue and dyspnoea are notorious and stress tests are widely used to assess functional capacity, prognosis and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions in this syndrome.ObjectiveTo evaluate the reproducibility of the six-minute walk test (6MW) in patients with HF and correlate the magnitude of the variables reached at peak exercise of the 6MWT with a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).MethodsWe studied 16 patients (12 men and 4 women) diagnosed with HF FC I-II (NYHA). The volunteers underwent two 6MWT (6MWT'1 and 6MWT'2) with 30-minute interval between them; then, they underwent a maximum CPET.ResultsAll variables obtained in the two 6MWT' proved to be significant with high correlations: distance walked (DW) (r = 0.93, p < 0.0001), heart rate (HR) (r = 0.89, p < 0.0001), oxygen consumption (VO2) (r = 0.93, p < 0.0001) and scale of perceived exertion (r = 0.85, p < 0.0001). In turn, all variables analyzed in the 6MWT' showed significant and moderate correlations with the variables obtained from the CPET, namely: peak HR (r = 0.66; p = 0.005); VO2 (r = 0.57; p = 0.02) and VO2 in the CPET and DT in the 6MWT'2 (r = 0.70; p = 0.002).ConclusionThe 6MWT was reproducible in this group of patients with HF (NYHA - I-II) and correlated with the CPET. Therefore, it is a tool for reliable evaluation, and a suitable, safe and low-cost alternative for the prescription of aerobic exercise in patients with HF.

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