Eccentric Cycling Exercise During Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Patients With Cardiopulmonary Diseases

NCT07042750 | Recruiting DMC

• 1 other identifier: EccRehab2
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 24
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Eccentric cycling exercise (ECC) allows training at low metabolic costs and may therefore be valuable for patients with pulmonary vascular disease (PVD). For these patients, regular exercise training has an evidence level 1A recommendation in the current guidelines. Exercise training during longer and regular periods provides chronic adaptation, for which ECC was recently found to have a greater effectiveness than CON by increasing muscle strength, hypertrophy, six-minute walking distance and furthermore, by increasing maximum oxygen uptake (V'O2max) especially in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic left heart failure or coronary heart disease. Furthermore, we conducted an RCT in which we exposed patients with PVD to ECC and concluded that ECC is a feasible and well-tolerated exercise modality for PVD patients with severely lower O2 demand and load to the right ventricle. The study in patients with PVD was started (EccRehab), and the great potential was recognized. Therefore there was an indication to open the inclusion criteria to all cardiopulmonary patients with indication for pulmonary rehabilitation (EccRehab2). For this purpose, the aim of this project is to investigate whether ECC improves exercise capacity and possibly hemodynamics during prolonged rehabilitation programs in patients with cardiopulmonary diseases.

Conditions

Eccentric Exercise Training

Keywords

Eccentric cycling exercise; Pulmonary rehabilitation

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Peak exercise performance [Watts]

  Peak exercise performance is measured during cardiopulmonary exercise tests on a cycle ergometer. The Unit of the measurement is watts.

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

Secondary Outcomes (14)

• Peak oxygen uptake [L/min]

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

• Ventilatory equivalents for carbon dioxide (Minute ventilation / carbon dioxide output)

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

• Six minute walk distance [meters]

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

• Knee extension test [repetitions]

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

• Systolic pulmonary arterial pressure [mmHg]

  At baseline pre-intervention and immediately after three weeks of rehabilitation

Study Arms (2)

Eccentric cycling

EXPERIMENTAL

Patients perform eccentric cycling exercise instead of normal cycling exercise in addition to standard car during a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation

Other: Eccentric cycling exercise

Standard care

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Patients perform cardiopulmonary rehabilitation according to standard care

Other: Standard Care Arm

Interventions

Eccentric cycling exercise OTHER

Patients perform eccentric cycling exercise instead of normal cycling exercise in addition to standard car during a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation

Eccentric cycling

Standard Care Arm OTHER

Patients perform cardiopulmonary rehabilitation according to standard care

Standard care

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 85 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Diagnosed with PVD, either PAH or CTEPH via right heart catheterization, according to recent guidelines \[9\]
• Diagnosed with a cardiopulmonary disease as indication for a pulmonary rehabilitation
• Stable medication for at least 1 month
• Age 18years to 85 years
• No resting hypoxemia (PaO2 \>7.3 kPa)
• Medical indication to prescibe a pulmonary rehabilitation

You may not qualify if:

• Any co-morbidity that limits the patient to participate the full rehabilitation
• Enrollments in other trials with active treatments
• Language barriers that limits the patient to participate in the rehabilitation

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Silvia Ulrich Somaini: lead
• Klinik Barmelweid: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Klinik Barmelweid

Barmelweid, 5017, Switzerland

RECRUITING

Universitätsspital Zürich

Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

RECRUITING

Central Study Contacts

Silvia Ulrich, Prof. dr. med.

CONTACT

+41442564362; silvia.ulrich@usz.ch

Julian Müller, Dr. sc. med.

CONTACT

0432539349; julian.mueller2@usz.ch

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Prof. Silvia Ulrich

Model Details: Intervention: Eccentric cycling (instead of usual cycling) + standard care Control: Standard care

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 10, 2025
• First Posted: June 29, 2025
• Study Start: May 2, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): May 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): May 30, 2026
• Last Updated: June 29, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-06

Locations

CH (2)