Effects of Home Based Exercise Therapy in Early Cirrhosis

University of Alberta

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cirrhosis

Treatments: Behavioral: Home based Aerobic exercise training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02267421

CKPTMHLivCirHomeTraining

Details and patient eligibility

About

Individuals with Cirrhosis have been shown to have a low aerobic capacity. While supervised exercise training has been shown to be an effective intervention to remedy this, there is currently no data on home based exercise interventions in this population. This study will evaluate the effects of a home based exercise program on the aerobic capacity of enrolled early stage liver cirrhosis patients, as well as changes in quality of life, thigh muscle thickness, and thigh muscle oxygen consumption.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age >18 and less than or equal to 70 years Liver Cirrhosis Child Pugh Class A or B If required, primary or secondary Variceal prophylaxis in place

Exclusion criteria

• Post-liver transplantation Hepatocellular carcinoma beyond transplant criteria Active non-hepatocellular carcinoma malignancy Significant cardiac disease Hemoglobin (<80 g/L) Oxygen saturation at rest <95% Known myopathy Chronic renal failure on dialysis Physical impairment making it impossible to ride an exercise bike or treadmill Orthopedic abnormality preventing exercise training HIV infection Patient unwilling to consent to study Child Pugh class C

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Home based aerobic exercise

Experimental group

Description:

Home based aerobic exercise on cycle ergometer. Three times per week, 30-60 minutes per session.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Home based Aerobic exercise training

Usual Care group

No Intervention group

Description:

These patients will continue with their normal activities of daily living and will not be provided with equipment or coaching for home based exercise during the study period .