Limitations
obesity
OBESITY
Although echocardiographic parameters of cardiac function did not improve in patients undergoing CR in our study, one may hypothesize that such parameters would even have worsened without any CR. However, because a control group of patients with obesity not undergoing any CR is lacking in the current study, this remains to be investigated. The number of subjects in this study was small. Studies with a larger sample size would be necessary for further evaluation of some of the trends that have been observed. Also, a more intensified echocardiographic follow-up with measurements for example also at six months would have allowed better comparison with the other studies with shorter follow-up described before. Nevertheless, the long term follow-up is also a major strength of our study.