CASE REPORT

Can patients with McArdle’s disease run?

M Pérez¹, M Moran³, C Cardona¹, J L Maté-Muñoz¹, J C Rubio³, A L Andreu², M A Martin³, J Arenas³, A Lucia¹

¹ Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
² Hospital Universitari Val d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain
³ Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain

Correspondence to:
Alejandro Lucia
Universidad Europea de Madrid, Physiology, Madrid 28670, Spain; alejandro.lucia{at}uem.es

Patients with McArdle’s disease commonly adopt a sedentary lifestyle. This sedentary behaviour, however, usually worsens the limited exercise capacity of these patients. Although eccentric muscle work can be associated with rhabdomyolysis, supervised eccentric training with gradually increasing loads has important advantages compared with conventional concentric work, particularly for patients with a poor cardiorespiratory system. We report the beneficial effects (particularly, increased VO_2peak (from 14.6 to 30.8 ml/kg/min) and increased gross muscle efficiency (from 13.8% to 17.2%)) induced by a supervised aerobic training programme of 7 months duration including 3–4 running sessions (60 min/session) per week in a 38-year-old patient. These preliminary data suggest the potential therapeutic value of this type of exercise in these patients.

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Commentary

A St C Gibson⁴

⁴ Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town, Newlands, South Africa; agibson{at}sports.uct.ac.za

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