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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2015 Mar;239(1):150-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2014.12.057. Epub 2015 Jan 14.

Effect of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation on arterial stiffness and inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers: a randomized controlled trial of myocardial infarction patients

Nórton Luís Oliveira  1 , Fernando Ribeiro  2 , Gustavo Silva  3 , Alberto Jorge Alves  4 , Nuno Silva  5 , João Tiago Guimarães  6 , Madalena Teixeira  7 , José Oliveira  8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effect of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation on arterial stiffness and inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers: a randomized controlled trial of myocardial infarction patients

Nórton Luís Oliveira et al. Atherosclerosis. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Arterial stiffness have shown an independent predictive value for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

Objective: This study sought to evaluate the effects of an 8-week exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program (ECR) on arterial stiffness, and on inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers. Additionally, it was assessed two potential confounding variables, daily physical activity and dietary intake.

Methods: In this parallel-group trial, 96 patients (56 ± 10 years) were randomized to either the exercise group (EG) or control group (CG) 4 weeks after suffering acute myocardial infarction (MI). ECR consisted of 8 weeks of aerobic exercise at 70-85% of maximal heart rate during 3 sessions weekly, plus usual care. CG participants received only usual care. Baseline and final assessments included arterial stiffness through carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV), inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers, daily physical activity, and dietary intake. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01432639).

Results: After 8 weeks, no significant changes were found between groups in cf-PWV, inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers, daily physical activity, or dietary intake. Excluding those patients (n = 7) who did not attend, at least 80% of the exercise sessions provided similar results, excepting a significant reduction in cf-PWV in the EG compared to the CG.

Conclusions: A short-term ECR does not seem to reduce arterial stiffness and inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction biomarkers of post-MI patients under optimized medication. Nevertheless, the decrease of cf-PWV observed in the EG, when considering only those patients who attended at least 80% of exercise sessions, warrants further investigation.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Chronic exercise; Inflammation; Pulse wave velocity; Secondary prevention.

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