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Review
. 2020 Aug 3;9(8):2487.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9082487.

Cardiac Rehabilitation and Endothelial Function

Gaetano Antonio Lanza  1   2 , Michele Golino  3 , Angelo Villano  1 , Oreste Lanza  4 , Priscilla Lamendola  1 , Augusto Fusco  5 , Massimo Leggio  6
Affiliations
Review

Cardiac Rehabilitation and Endothelial Function

Gaetano Antonio Lanza et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Endothelial dysfunction is an early abnormality in the process of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease and has been associated with worse clinical outcome. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been reported to be helpful to reduce cardiovascular events in various types of cardiac disease, but the mechanisms of its beneficial effects remain only partially known. In this article, we review the studies that assessed the effect of CR on endothelial function in patients with various cardiac conditions. Available data show that CR significantly improves impaired endothelial function in these patients, which may contribute to the beneficial effects of CR on clinical outcome.

Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; clinical outcome; endothelial function.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the method to assess flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Brachial artery diameter is measured at baseline and during hyperemia consequent to 5-min forearm ischemia; FMD is calculated as the percent increase of the artery diameter during hyperemia compared to baseline.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the method to assess flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Brachial artery diameter is measured at baseline and during hyperemia consequent to 5-min forearm ischemia; FMD is calculated as the percent increase of the artery diameter during hyperemia compared to baseline.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of the method of peripheral arterial tonometry. Modified from [40].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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