ORIGINAL ARTICLES   Free access

European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2016 June;52(3):364-9

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Effect of short-term exercise training in patients following acute myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention

Mojsije ANDJIC ¹, Dejan SPIROSKI ¹, Olivera ILIC STOJANOVIC ¹, Tijana VIDAKOVIC ¹, Milica LAZOVIC ^{1, 2}, Dragan BABIC ², Arsen RISTIC ^{2, 3}, Sanja MAZIC ², Marija ZDRAVKOVIC ⁴, Petar OTASEVIC ^{2, 5} ✉

¹ Institute for Rehabilitation, Belgrade, Serbia; ² Belgrade University School of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia; ³ Clinic for Cardiology Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia; ⁴ Hospital Medical Center Bezanijska kosa, Belgrade, Serbia; ⁵ Dedinje Cardiovascular Institute, Belgrade, Serbia

BACKGROUND: Exercise-based rehabilitation is an important part of treatment patients following acute myocardial infarction (MI). However, data are scarce on the efffects of short-term exercise programs in patients with acute MI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI).
AIM: To evaluate the effect of short-term exercise training on cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) parameters in patients suffering acute MI treated with PPCI.
STUDY DESIGN: Observational longitudinal study.
SETTING: Inpatient cardiac rehabilitation.
POPULATION: Sixty consecutive patients with MI treated with PPCI referred for rehabilitation.
METHODS: We studied 60 consecutive patients with MI treated with PPCI reffered for rehabilitation to our institution. The study population consisted of 54 men and 6 women (age 52.0±8.4 years, left ventricular ejection fraction 54.1±8.1%), who participated in a 3-week clinical cardiac rehabilitation program. The program consisted of cycling for 7 times/week, and daily walking for 45 minutes at an intensity of 70-80% of the individual maximal heart rate. All patients performed symptom-limited CPET on a bicycle ergometer with a ramp protocol of 10 w/min. The CPET was also performed after cardiac rehabilitation programs.
RESULTS: After 3 weeks of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program improved exercise tolerance as compared to baseline (peak workload 119.28±20.45 vs. 104.35±22.01 watts, respectively, P<0.001), as well as peak respiratory exchage ratio (1.10±0.14 vs. 1.04±0.01, respectively, P<0.001). Peak heart rate at rest, peak and after 1 minute of rest were also improved. Most importantly, peak VO2 (19.27±4.16 vs. 17.27±3.34 ml/kg/min, respectively, P<0.001), peak VCO2 (1.83±0.38 vs. 1.58±0.30, respectively, P<0.001), peak ventilatory exchange (53.73±12.47 vs. 45.50±11.32 L/min, respectively, P<0.001) and peak breathing reserve (55.20±12.36 vs. 60.18±14.19%, respectively, P<0.001) were also improved. No major adverse cardiac events were noted during the rehabilitation program.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that short-term exercise training in patients with acute MI treated with PPCI is safe and improves functional capacity, as well as test duration, work load and heart rate response.
CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: It appears that three week cardiac rehabilitation is an effective approach to improve exercise capacity in patients with acute MI treated with PPCI.