RESULTS
The clinical characteristics of the patients are shown in Table 1. Comparisons of the exercise and no-exercise groups revealed no base-line differences in any variables examined except the thickness of the left ventricular posterior wall (13.01.4 vs. 11.91.8 mm; P0.02), the systolic dimension (31.24.9 vs. 34.75.3 mm; P0.04), the ejection fraction (7110 percent vs. 6411 percent; P0.03), and fractional shortening (37.46.7 percent vs. 31.85.3 percent; P0.003). There was a trend toward a larger left-ventricular-mass index in patients in the exercise
group (162.239.7 vs. 147.128.7; P0.14). Eighteen of the 23 patients assigned to the exercisegroup completed phase 1. One patient dropped out early in the study because of an interim diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis, one was withdrawn for not complying with the medication regimen, and three were withdrawn
for not complying with the exercise program.