Effect of exercise training in Heart Rate recovery of patients in cardiac rehabilitation

Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation consists of measures that allow patients to recover their functional capacity through physical exercise and therapeutic education. The aim of our study is to determinate the impact of exercise training in heart rate recovery of patients in cardiac rehabilitation. It's a prospective study included 132 patients admitted in Cardiac Rehabilitation unit, Cardiology centre, Mohammed V Military Hospital, Rabat, Morocco, all of them had clinical evaluation, echocardiography and cardio respiratory capacities evaluation. The average age of patients was 57.26 ± 8.2 years with male predominance, they have more than three cardiovascular risk factors dominated by smoking and hypertension, the average BMI is 26.58 ± 7.4 kg/m 2 , coronary artery disease is the most frequent, they had conserved ejection fraction (EF: 54 ± 9.3%). After 20 sessions of cardiac rehabilitation; patients stopped smoking, they have a best quality of life, they significantly recovered their heart rate; from 68.07 ± 11.4 to 65.28 at rest and from 118.24 ± 38.4 to 114.72 ± 35.05 at the effort (0.001), they improve the maximal work load (from 89.6 ± 35.9 watt to 116.2 ± 33.8 watt) and VO2max (from 21.1 ± 6.9 ml/kg/min to 25.7 ± 4.7 ml/kg/min). This study demonstrated that exercise training is clearly benefit for patients to improve their exercise capacities and recover their heart rate.