Management of patients in cardiac rehabilitation: An overall benefit

Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation consists of measures that allow a patient to recover their functional capacity through physical exercise and secondary prevention measures. The aim of our study is to evaluate the benefit of rehabilitation in cardiac patients. It is a prospective study, including 182 patients admitted in cardiac rehabilitation center, Hospital, Paris. All of them had clinical examination, electrocardiogram, transthoracic echocardiography, biological test and ergospirometry. The average age of patients was 59.15 ± 13.7 years, with male predominance, they have more than three cardiovascular risk factors, dominated by hypertension and dyslipidemia and they have overweight with BMI average to 27.04 ± 7.1 kg/m 2 . Coronary artery disease is the most common, clinical examination is normal, transthoracic echocardiography shows preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (53.7 ± 13.1%). After 20 sessions of cardiac rehabilitation, they have decreased in weight (from 78.16 ± 12.4 to 77.6 ± 11.8 kg), a reduction of LDL-C (from 0.89 ± 0.29 to 0.78 ± 0.26 mg/L), blood pressure (from 134.9 ± 17.9 to 127.12 ± 16.3 mmHg), a significant improvement in the maximal work load (from 98.04 ± 30 to 105.5 ± 24 watt) and VO 2 max (from 20.5 ± 7.04 to 25.5 ± 11.6 mL/kg/min). This study confirms that cardiac rehabilitation is clearly benefic for cardiac patients to improve their exercise capacity and correct their cardiovascular risk factors.