Conclusions Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is effective at reducing important clinical outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease .
While our analysis was constrained by the quality of included trials and missing information about intervention components , there appears to be little differential effect of variations in exercise intervention , particularly on mortality outcomes .
Background While the clinical benefits of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation are well established , there is extensive variation in the interventions used within these trials .
It is unknown whether variations in individual components of these exercise interventions provide different relative contributions to overall clinical outcomes .
This study aims to systematic ally examine the relationship between individual components of the exercise intervention in cardiac rehabilitation ( such as intensity and frequency ) and clinical outcomes for people with coronary heart disease .
Return to full normal activities including work at two weeks after acute myocardial infarction.
Patients are generally advised to return to full normal activities , including work , 6 to 8 weeks after acute myocardial infa rct ion ( AMI ) . We assessed the outcomes of early return to normal activities , including work at 2 weeks , after AMI in patients who were stratified to be at a low risk for future cardiac events . Patients were considered for r and omization before discharge if they had no angina , had left ventricular ejection fraction > 40 % , a negative result from a symptom-limited exercise stress test for ischemia ( < 2 mm ST depression ) at 1 week , and achieved > 7 METs . Patients with left ventricular ejection fraction < 40 % were included only if they did not have inducible ventricular tachycardia at electrophysiologic studies . Seventy-two patients were r and omized to return to normal activities at 2 weeks and 70 patients to undergo st and ard cardiac rehabilitation and return to normal activities at 6 weeks after AMI . There were no deaths or heart failure in either group . There was no significant difference in the incidence of reinfa rct ion , revascularization , left ventricular function , lipids , body mass index , smoking , or exercise test results at 6 months . In conclusion , return to full normal activities , including work at 2 weeks , after AMI appears to be safe in patients who are stratified to a low-risk group . This should have significant medical and socioeconomic implication
Conclusions Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is effective at reducing important clinical outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease .
While our analysis was constrained by the quality of included trials and missing information about intervention components , there appears to be little differential effect of variations in exercise intervention , particularly on mortality outcomes .
Background While the clinical benefits of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation are well established , there is extensive variation in the interventions used within these trials .
It is unknown whether variations in individual components of these exercise interventions provide different relative contributions to overall clinical outcomes .
This study aims to systematic ally examine the relationship between individual components of the exercise intervention in cardiac rehabilitation ( such as intensity and frequency ) and clinical outcomes for people with coronary heart disease .