Exercise training for intermittent claudication: Does it adversely affect biochemical markers of the exercise-induced inflammatory response?

To identify a stable biochemical marker of disease severity in patients with intermittent claudication and to use these findings to assess the effect of therapeutic exercise training. Case-control study: prospective randomised-controlled trial of exercise training. Plasma fibrinogen, serum amyloid A protein (SAA), C-reactive protein (CRP) and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) were measured in 67 claudicants and 15 controls. Twenty-two patients were randomised to supervised exercise training and 17 randomised to observation. Subjects were reviewed at 3, 6 and 12 months. The median (interquartile range) baseline fibrinogen was 3.7 g/l (3.3–4.25) in claudicants and 3.5 g/l (2.9–3.95) in controls (p = 0.045); CRP was 4.7 mg/l (2.2–9.0) and 2.1 mg/l (1.0–2.8), respectively ( p