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

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).

Objective: To evaluate the effect of short-term exercise training on cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) parameters in patients suffering acute MI treated with PPCI.

Methods: Observational longitudinal study. Methods: Inpatient cardiac rehabilitation. Methods: 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. Conclusions: It appears that three week cardiac rehabilitation is an effective approach to improve exercise capacity in patients with acute MI treated with PPCI.