P2515Cardiac rehabilitation in patients with refractory angina: preliminary results

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Refractory angina (RA) implies important impairment of quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is still not recommended by guidelines due to few evidence regarding its effects in this population. This study evaluated the impact of CR on physical performance and on angina/ischemia threshold. Methods 36 RA patients undergoing optimal medical therapy were randomly assigned to a 12-week exercise based CR program or stablished clinical follow-up (CF). Clinical evaluation, exercise bicycle stress echocardiography (SE) and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CP) were performed before and after the protocol. CR group performed in-hospital exercise sessions, and the aerobic training prescription was based on CP parameters or ischemia/ angina threshold. Each CR class was 60 min in duration (5min warm-up, 30min aerobic and 5min cooldown, 15min low load resistance training and 5min stretching). Bonferroni multiple comparison and t test were used in statistical analysis. Results Baseline characteristics didn't differ between groups. In RC group, 40% presented CCS 2, 25% CCS 3 and 35% CCS 4, while in CF group, 41%, 23.5% and 35.5%, respectively (p=0.5). There was no change in CCS between groups after intervention. CR group presented an increase in ischemic threshold in SE when compared to CF group (234.6±87.9s to 293.8±130.9 s vs. 200.9±78.6s to 203.7±93.7s, p=0.044), increase in angina threshold in SE (156.00±62.2s to 260.1±152.8s vs. 190.6±96.6s to 152.9±76, 7s, p=0.041) and increase in CP total duration (347.9±143.2s to 489.8±170.2s vs. 331.7±128.5s to 323.5±101.0s, p=0,016). Baseline characteristics in both groups Variables CR group (n=19) CF group (n=17) p Male sex (%) 63.2 58.8 0.8 Age, years (mean ± SD) 61.2±8.7 62.9±8.8 0.6 LVEF, % (mean ± SD) 55.7±7.3 50.0±10.4 0.08 SBP, mmHg (mean ± SD) 125.6±18.0 122.6±14.5 0.6 DBP, mmHg (mean ± SD) 77.5±9.6 76.2±13,1 0.7 HR, bpm (mean ± SD) 60.5±6.2 60.6±7.1 0.9 BMI, kg/m2 (mean ± SD) 28.8±4.1 26.1±10.9 0.4 Fasting glucose, mg/dl (mean ± SD) 136.4±33.6 153.6±64.7 0.3 HBA1C, % (mean ± SD) 6.8±1.2 7.2±1.6 0.4 LDL-c, mg/dl (mean ± SD) 77.8±29.0 84.7±28.6 0.5 Results CR seems to be an effective adjuvant treatment in RA, increasing ischemia and angina threshold, improving physical performance. Acknowledgement/Funding FAPESP