Effects of a Dynamic Combined Training Method on Autonomic Cardiac Control in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Silva Costa CES, Chaves LF, Sousa TM, Ramos Prado RC, Yukio Asano R, Gaspar Novais TM, Lopes Alves CH, Almeida Bacelar SN, Furtado Almeida FJ, Araujo Furtado Almeida AE, Bavaresco Gambassi B. Effects of a Dynamic Combined Training Method on Autonomic Cardiac Control in Patients with Parkinson's Disease. JEP online 2019;22(3):23-30. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Dynamic Combined Training Method on autonomic cardiac control (ACC) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The study sample consisted of 4 patients (age, 62.25 [+ or -] 2.99 yrs; body mass index, 25.01 [+ or -] 3.80 kg*[m.sup.-2]). ACC was evaluated before and after 10 wks of resistance training exercises combined with aerobic exercise in an interspersed fashion in the same exercise session. Significant positive differences were found for the indexes: Low Frequency (LF) (nu) (P=0.039), high frequency (HF) (nu) (P=0.041), and LF/HF (P=0.037). In addition, we observed the largest effect sizes for [rMSSD (ms) (d=1.0), LF (nu) (d=-1.4), HF (nu) (d=0.8) and LF/HF (d=-1.4). The Dynamic Combined Training Method seems to be an effective strategy of improving ACC in patients with PD. Key Words: Exercise, Heart Rate Variability, Nervous System, Neurodegenerative diseases