Lower extremity artery disease: interest, feasibility and effect of exercise training

Peripheral artery disease is mainly characterized by progressive narrowing of lower-limb arteries by atherosclerotic plaques, causing a lack of oxygen to reach distal muscles. This deficit is particularly present during ambulatory activities, as metabolic requirements rise, causing a typical cramp-like pain in the lower-limb(s). Referred to as intermittent claudication, this cardinal symptom can cause serious deterioration of quality of life, physical activity and therefore overall health. In addition, as the underlying etiology is largely overlapping with coronary artery disease, morbidity and mortality risk of the latter is markedly increased. Therefore current recommendations highlight the need for (supervised) exercise therapy, risk assessment with concomitant change in life-style and drug therapy. Although supervised exercise training has shown to be effective; uptake, compliance and availability of supervised programs are still major barriers to overall implementation. To bridge-the-gap between less effective home-based programs, advice to exercise and supervised sessions, technology-guided home-based exercise programs show potential. Therefore, this doctoral project will aim to investigate the interest, feasibility and effectiveness of technology-guided home-based exercise training to ameliorate walking capacity and cardiovascular risk profile in patients suffering from intermittent claudication. In addition, determinants underlying these changes will be studied.