What is the purpose of the study?

 A kidney transplant can transform the health and quality of life of people with kidney disease. Despite this, there is a high rate of heart disease in these patients, which can limit the survival of the new kidney and the length and quality of life. Exercise reduces the rate of heart disease in healthy individuals and patients with kidney disease, however, there is a lack of rigorous research into the role of increased physical activity in the management of cardiovascular risk in kidney transplant patients.

 This study addresses two new areas:

 1.       The use of home-based exercise. Current research looks at supervised exercise whereby participants attend sessions, usually in the hospital. This is time consuming for the participants and for the research team and is often expensive.

2.       Measuring changes in the structure and function of the heart using state of the art cardiac MRI scans.

What does it involve and what do we hope to find out?

 The study will randomly assign participants into one of two groups:

 1.       A 12-week home-based aerobic and strength based exercise programme whereby participants are provided with equipment, an exercise diary, and regular guidance from the research team.

2.       A control group who continue to receive their usual care without making any changes to their lifestyle. This will allow us to compare results of the exercise programme. This group will be offered the opportunity to complete the exercise programme once they have finished the 12-week control period.

 Taking lots of measurements before and after the exercise programme, we hope to see what changes the exercise makes to heart disease risk in renal transplant recipients. These measurements include: the cardiac MRI, cardiovascular fitness, body composition, strength and physical function, and various blood measures of heart disease risk.

What’s next?

This study is ongoing, so if you are interested in finding out more information please contact us. Given the unusual, non-traditional heart risk factors and delicate immune systems of transplant recipients, current guidelines on the best frequency, intensity, time and mode of exercise may not be appropriate for these patients, and this research hopes to inform future guidance in this area.

Evidence

The ESCERT study design and methods have been published in this open access article.