Evaluation of the Six Minute Walk Test and Other Instruments in Heart Failure

Inclusion Criteria:

• Both sexes

• Different etiologies of Heart Failure

• Functional class I - III (NYHA)

• Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 50%

• No history of previous cardiac surgery

• In return for medical evaluation at the Amelio Marques Clinic, Hospital de Clinicas,Federal University of Uberlândia scheduled for the period from October 2012 to January 2013

• Clinical stability observed by: heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure andarterial oxygen saturation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Bad cognition compromising the understanding of tests

• Physical disability that compromise the performance in walk test

• Aortic aneurysm or any aortic deformity

• Patients with signs or symptoms of transient myocardial ischemia with angina pectorisand/or class IV by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Classification

• Anomalous pressure behavior with hypertension > 180/100 mmHg

• Orthostatic hypotension (decrease > 15 mmHg ) with symptoms

• Arrhythmia with presence of complex ventricular extra systoles

• Tachycardia sinus at rest (HR > 120 beats/min)

• Atrioventricular block of 2nd or 3rd degree

• Subjects with pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)

• Functional class IV by the New York Heart Association

• Chronic organ dysfunction such as renal failure, respiratory or liver disease

• Active neoplasia over the past five years

• Commitment as general weakness, fever, other limiting factors (psychological,musculoskeletal)

• Feeling sick before the beginning of the Six minute walk test: intolerable angina ordyspnea, cramps in legs, staggering gait, excessive sweating (diaphoresis), pallor orashen skin or SpO2 below 85%

• Voluntary desire of the patient to withdraw from research