Hemodynamic responses to In‐Bed Cycle Exercise in the acute phase after moderate to severe stroke: A randomized controlled trial

Hemodynamic responses to exercise in the acute phase after moderate to severe stroke have remained poorly investigated. The aim of this randomized controlled study, in which 52 (32 women) patients with moderate to severe stroke were randomized to three weeks of 20 minutes in-bed cycle exercise 5 days per week or to usual care, was to explore the systolic blood pressure (SBP) response to exercise and to evaluate the impact of the intervention on the resting and post-test systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rate, and on the systolic blood pressure response to exercise. We found that resting SBP decreased from baseline to post-intervention in both the intervention group (147.7 ± 18.1 mmHg to 125.3 ± 17.1 mmHg, P < .001) and in the control group (147.8 ± 23.7 mmHg to 131.4 ± 14.8 mmHg, P < .001) without a significant difference between the groups (interaction P = .308). However, there was a significant difference (interaction P = .010) regarding how Δ SBP (change in SBP from pre-test to post-test) changed from baseline to post-intervention. In the intervention group, Δ SBP increased from -1.0 ± 15.0 mmHg to 8.5 ± 9.4 mmHg, P = .009, whereas in the control group, Δ SBP decreased from 7.1 + 10.9 mmHg to 4.5 + 11.8 mmHg, P = .395. We conclude that patients randomized to in-bed cycle exercise seemed to normalize their blood pressure response to exercise to a larger extent than patients in the control group.