Evaluation of benefit of cardiac rehabilitation in Morocco: An experience of the first cardiac rehabilitation unit

Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation consists of measures that allow patients to recover their functional capacity through physical exercise and secondary prevention measures. The aim of our study is to evaluate the benefit of cardiac rehabilitation in Moroccan patients. It's a prospective study included 70 patients admitted in cardiac rehabilitation unit, cardiology centre, Mohamed V military hospital in Rabat, Morocco. All of them had clinical examination, an electrocardiogram, echocardiography, biological test and Ergospirometry. The average age of patients is 56.57 ± 10.2 years, with male predominance, they have more than three cardiovascular risk factors dominated by hypertension and smoking, 70% of patients have coronary artery disease, the BMI was 25.8 ± 4.5 kg/m 2 , clinical examination was normal. Transthoracic Echocardiography showed preserved left-ventricular ejection fraction (56.1 ± 7.7%). After 20 sessions of cardiac rehabilitation, patients have a blood pressure in the target, they stopped smoking, they have a best quality of life, they have a significant improvement in the maximal work load, from 102.6 ± 38.4 to 133.3 ± 11.5 watt ( P = 0,01) and a significant improvement in VO2max, from 27.8 ± 7.6 to 34.4 ± 9.8 mL/kg/min ( P = 0.02). This study demonstrates that cardiac rehabilitation is clearly benefit for patients, to increase their exercise capacity, to reduce their cardio vascular risk factors and to improve their quality of life.