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Exercise Intervention

Dysautonomia, Exercise, and Post-transplant Quality of Life

This research program is being done to determine how exercise improves cardiac autonomic function, exercise capacity, and quality of life following transplantation. The increasing success of third and fourth generation immunosuppressant drugs has led to graft survival rates of approximately 95% for kidney recipients.

Consequently, the number of persons with long-term graft function has expanded dramatically. While it is well documented that the quality of life achieved following transplantation exceeds that present prior to transplantation, significant posttransplant complications threaten optimal quality of life for long-term kidney transplant survivors.

Cardiac dysautonomia, i.e. diminished heart rate variability, significantly threatens quality of life and increases the risk of cardiac-related mortality in these patients. Although posttransplant patient survival is excellent, the majority of patients who die following transplantation have a functioning graft at the time of death. Thus, posttransplant mortality is the leading cause of graft loss.

Inclusion criteria are:

• Adults 18 years of age or older\
• A functioning kidney or kidney-pancreas graft

Exclusion criteria include:

• Pregnancy
• Previous heart transplant
• Illness that precludes exercise
• Inability to exercise.
• Loss of transplant allograft during the course of the study
• Medication or lifestyle change(s) that may alter study outcomes