The article “Exercise Intensity During 6-min Test in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease” provides original, practically useful information to be considered in the diagnosis, prognosis and mainly in the functional assessment that allows a better prescription of physical exercise in the medical treatment of the disease. The study was conducted with the aim of determining whether overground walking would allows the detection of the first ventilatory threshold, also known as anaerobic threshold (AT), in symptomatic patients with lower extremity occlusive peripheral arterial disease (LE-OPAD). AT is a marker of exercise intensity, useful for the determination of the optimal zone for physical training focused on improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness.

LE-OPAD is an important public health problem. According to global epidemiology report, the disease affected 202 million individuals in 2010, and 237 million in 2015, with a 22% increase during this period. The association of OPAD with major cardiovascular events (MACE) has been well documented; in the severe stage of the disease, with presence of critical ischemia, there is a high risk of cardiovascular events, lower limb amputation and death, with association with elevated levels of cardiac troponin and N terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP).

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