11.90 Order no. 1100831 Sets out guidelines for the design and implementation of rehabilitation programmes aimed at improving the outcome of cardiovascular diseases and enhancing the patient's quality of life. Citing evidence from over 100 studies, the book underscores the many benefits that can be expected when all patients in all age groups are given appropriate care and counselling. Emphasis is placed on the importance of exercise as both a powerful non-invasive assessment tool and a key component of rehabilitative care. In formulating guidelines and recommendations, the book gives particular attention to the needs of patients in developing countries, where rheumatic heart disease, hypertension, and cardiomyopathy are prevalent, and coronary heart disease is assuming growing significance. Throughout the book, recommendations concerning methods of functional assessment, schedules of exercise, and staff and equipment requirements are given for three different levels of care, moving from a basic facility within the community, through hospital facilities, to an advanced cardiovascular rehabilitation centre linked to a major medical centre.
Information is presented in five sections.
The first reviews recent developments in rehabilitative care, concentrating on advances that have made virtually all cardiovascular patients candidates for rehabilitation. The second section provides highly detailed advice on the design and implementation of cardiac rehabilitation in developing countries. Readers are also given extensive advice on the assessment of patients for return to work, concentrating on the physical demands of activities commonly performed in developing countries. The third section considers the special needs of children and young adults with cardiovascular disease, giving particular attention to the use of dynamic exercise testing to identify children or young adults who will benefit from exercise training. Readers are given advice on the clinical evaluation, recommended levels of physical activity, exercise testing, and exercise training for fourteen conditions.