Physical activity in solid organ transplant recipients: preliminary results of the Italian project.

Organ transplantation has become the most frequent choice for most patients suffering of renal failure, end stage liver disease or heart failure. Owing to the increasing number of transplantation and recipients’ survival, a greater incidence of cardiovascular and metabolic complications can be observed. Further, kidney, liver and heart transplants present a general reduction of functional capacity. Exercise prescription can be an efficient method to improve cardiovascular state, functional capacity and quality of life of these patients. Aim: To assess the effect of supervised protocol of endurance and resistance training on quality of life and physical fitness in a sample of liver, kidney and heart transplant. Methods: Up to now 111 subjects between the age of 20 and 70 (47.8±10.9) were evaluated. These subjects were evaluated at the Transplant Centre and they were assigned through a non-randomized method to 2 cohorts: Exercise Cohort (EF) and Control Cohort (CT). Then, each participant was evaluated at the Sport Medicine Centre, where they underwent test of physical strength, body composition, and aerobic capacity. Afterward, EF Transplant (n=72) received a tailored exercise prescription lasting 12 months, while no intervention was proposed to CT. Checkups and related test were performed after 6 and 12 months. Results: Up to now 50 patients completed the 12-month evaluation. At baseline, the two groups (EF and CT) showed similar anthropometric characteristics. After 12 months, EF presented a significant improvement of strength parameters, maximal power and aerobic capacity (p<0,05). After the Mixed Procedure analysis for repetitive data applied to both groups, Groups Effect was statistically significant only for strength value of right and left quadriceps (p=0,0047 and p=0,033, respectively). Group x Time interaction between the two courts was significant for all muscular groups and for VO2max and maximal workload during incremental test (p<0,05). Conclusions: Our study was aimed not only to investigate the effect of physical activity on transplant patients, but it also wants to develop the practice of exercise prescription within the standard approach for patient’s management. The results show that a tailored exercise program, including both resistance and endurance training, can contribute to improve physical fitness and health-related quality of life in these subjects.