Affiliations: Istituto di Patologia Speciale Medica, Università di Siena, Siena, Italy
Note: [] Accepted by: Editor Y. Isogai
Abstract: A controlled physical training was programmed for 15 peripheral obliterative arterial disease (POAD) patients with a daily exercise for 6 days every week, for 3 consecutive weeks without drugs treatment. Several haemorheological, haemodynamic and metabolic parameters were registered before and after the treadmill exercise, before and after the training period. The mean starting pain free walking distance was 283.7±50.4 m. At this moment, after the exercise, a Significant increase of whole blood viscosity and fibrinogen concentration, and a decrease of whole blood filterability were shown. At the same time a significant increase of venous β-thromboglobulin, thromboxane A2 adenosine and lactate were registered while the euglobulin lysis time was reduced as well as blood pH and venous PO2. After three weeks of training the pain free distance increased to 447.0±53.4 m. At this moment three measurements of the above mentioned functions are made: the first at the beginning of the exercise, the second one at the time corresponding to the pain free distance registered before training, and the last at the new pain free distance. The registered data showed that at the first and at the second point the value of each variable was better than that registered before the training, while that registered at the last time was not significantly different from the corresponding initial evaluation. The leg blood flow was unchanged. In conclusion the training-dependent improvement of the pain free distance was not associated to an increase of blood flow but rather to a complex mechanism involving both rheological and metabolic changes.
