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 .
Serum cholesterol, lifestyle, working capacity and quality of life in patients with coronary artery disease. Experiences from a hospital-based secondary prevention programme.
Coronary artery diseases ( CAD ) are main causes of morbidity and hospitalisation in western countries and CAD patients are at considerable risk of suffering further cardiac events . The development and evaluation of secondary prevention programmes therefore an important task . This thesis includes investigations on CAD patients admitted to a secondary prevention programme at Malmö University Hospital , Malmö , Sweden . Four weeks after discharge from the hospital , consecutive male and female patients aged 50 - 70 years with acute myocardial infa rct ion ( AMI ) or treated with coronary artery bypass grafting ( CABG ) surgery  were r and omised to a hospital organised preventive intervention or to usual follow-up at their general practitioners . In the three studies using this r and omised design , 87 ( study II ) , 90 ( study IV ) , and 106 ( study V ) intervention patients were available for evaluation . In addition , without r and omisation , lipid levels at four weeks after the event was compared with levels estimated within 24 hours after onset of symptoms in 141 AMI patients ( study I ) , and quality of life ( QL ) were estimated by question naire at one month and at one year after the event in 266 AMI , 94 CABG , and 16 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty ( PTCA ) patients ( study III ) . The prevention programme was effective in improving food habits but showed no impact on smoking habits or physical exercise in AMI patients ( study II ) . The intervention also did not show any significant improvement in working capacity in AMI and CABG patients . However , working capacity improved in both intervention and reference CABG patients , most probably due to improved coronary circulation from the surgery ( study IV ) . Cholesterol levels decreased significantly in AMI and CABG intervention patients as compared to the corresponding reference patients . This difference most likely was due to a higher frequency of lipid lowering drugs used in the intervention patients ( study V ) . The prevention programme also decreased body mass index significantly in AMI but not in CABG patients ( study V ) . In AMI patients receiving thrombolysis , cholesterol levels estimated within 24 hours after onset of symptoms and at four weeks after the event were virtually equal . In AMI patients not receiving thrombolysis , the lipid estimates from four weeks after the event were slightly , but significantly , above the within 24 hours from onset of symptoms estimates ( study I ) . One month after the event , both somatic and psychological aspects of QL were negatively affected in AMI and CABG patients compared to population controls . One year after the event , patients differed from controls mainly in somatic symptoms ( study III ) . Thus , the intervention programme was most successful in affecting lipid levels and food habits in AMI patients .  QL was considerably affected in patients following an cardiac event , especially during the initial recovery phase . In addition , in patients receiving thrombolysis , cholesterol levels estimated four weeks after an AMI are reasonably valid estimates of baseline values and may be used to decide about lipid lowering interventions
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 .