O2 Extraction During Exercise Determines Training Effect After Cardiac Rehabilitation in Myocardial Infarction (original) (raw)

2002, Circulation Journal

ardiac rehabilitation with exercise training (ET) for patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) improves exercise capacity, reduces coronary risk factors, improves quality of life, reduces subsequent hospitalization costs and reduces major coronary artery disease events including fatal MI, sudden death, and all-cause mortality. 1-6 It is a general notion that the magnitude of the improvement in exercise capacity after ET differs among individuals, but despite many reports on the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation with ET, the determinants of the improvement in exercise capacity have not been well documented. For example, Fioretti et al 7 and Digenio et al 8 reported that left ventricular (LV) systolic function, such as ejection fraction, did not correlate with the improvement in exercise capacity after ET. Therefore, the present study examined whether or not an improvement in exercise capacity is determined by, or predic from baseline variables obtained before ET. To this end, we performed left and right heart catheterization during a supine exercise test at the beginning of 3 months of ET and correlated the hemodynamic and oximetric variables with the post-training improvement in exercise capacity.