Editor’s Presentation

Abstract

Consistent data on the benefit of interval training in heart failure are available. 1 Guidelines require a period of stability before implementing it in clinical practice. 2 Controversies exist on the timing of starting and its safety and feasibility. In the present issue, interval exercise training started as early as nine days after an episode of heart failure decompensation was safe and effective in improving exercise tolerance and quality of life in selected systolic heart failure patients. 3 Positive effects were sustained after three months. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing was safely performed after careful selection in 19.6% of the study patients. Oscillatory ventilation on exercise, an ominous sign in heart failure, was not detected in the study, although there is evidence that it may be reduced by exercise training.