FRIDAY, April 6, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- High-intensity exercise in an independent marker for ventricular arrhythmia (VA) in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC), according to a study published online March 28 in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology.
Øyvind H. Lie, M.D., from Oslo University Hospital in Norway, and colleagues recorded exercise habits at the time of diagnosis by standardized interviews in consecutive AC patients. Exercise >6 metabolic equivalents was defined as high intensity; exercise duration above the median was categorized as long. Data were included for 173 AC patients.
The researchers found that the median weekly exercise duration was 2.5 hours and about half (52 percent) of patients reported high-intensity exercise. VA occurred in 48 percent of patients and was more prevalent in those with high- versus low-intensity exercise (74 versus 20 percent) and for long- versus short-duration exercise (65 versus 31 percent). High-intensity exercise was an independent marker for VA, even after adjustment for the interaction with long-duration exercise (odds ratio, 3.8); long-duration exercise was not.
"High-intensity exercise was a strong and independent marker of life-threatening VA in AC patients, independent of exercise duration. AC patients could be advised to restrict their exercise intensity," the authors write.
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