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 .
Importance of exercise training session duration in the rehabilitation of coronary artery disease patients
Background In cardiac rehabilitation , 40 - 60-min exercise training sessions are advised . However , because of the increasing coronary artery disease ( CAD ) prevalence and higher workload for cardiac rehabilitation centres , it remains unclear whether 40-min exercise training sessions are equally effective as 60-min exercise training sessions . Design Prospect i ve r and omized clinical trial . Methods One hundred and thirty-four CAD patients were included in a 7-week rehabilitation programme . All patients exercised 3 days per week , at a heart rate corresponding to 65 % of baseline peak oxygen uptake ( VO2peak ) . Patients were r and omized in two groups : 40 versus 60-min exercise training sessions .  Changes of body anthropometrics , resting haemodynamics , exercise capacity and ventilatory threshold , blood plasma lipid profile and C-reactive protein level were assessed . Results As a result of rehabilitation , exercise capacity , ventilatory threshold , and blood plasma lipid profile improved significantly in the total population ( P < 0.05 ) , without differences between subgroups ( P > 0.05 ) . Body weight and waist circumference decreased significantly in total population ( P < 0.01 ) , but with a greater magnitude in the 40 versus 60-min exercise session group ( P < 0.05 ) . Conclusions In the early rehabilitation of CAD patients , 40-min exercise training sessions seem to be at least as effective for improving body anthropometrics , blood plasma lipid profile and exercise capacity , as compared with 60-min exercise training sessions . Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 15:453 - 459 © 2008 The European Society of Cardiology
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 .