Efficacy of Physical Exercise in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Summary

Physical rehabilitation is a key element in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases, and recent evidence has shown that supervised exercise programmes can prevent cardiovascular events, improve physical function and quality of life. Individualized exercise prescription based on appropriate frequency, intensity and duration is recommended. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that physical cardiac exercise training can influence inflammation of the vessel wall and hence reduce development of arteriosclerosis in coronary vessels. In the literature are divergent conclusions on appropriate frequency and duration of physical rehabilitation programs in order to improve physical function and reduce arteriosclerosis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an optimized physical rehabilitation programme compared to a conventional programme on physical fitness, health related quality of life and vascular inflammation.

Conditions

• Coronary Heart Disease
• Heart Failure
• Ischemic Heart Diseases

Interventions

OTHER

Supervised physical exercise training x3 weekly for 12 weeks

Physical exercise training 1 hour per session. The exercise rehabilitation programme is carried out as group training with individual supervision. At each exercise session two experienced physiotherapist are leading the physical exercise training. Standardized physical exercise guidelines for each training session is described and followed. It consists of the following interventions: Warm up, aerobe fitness, muscle strength training and individual education and instruction in life stills changes in relation to physical activity.

OTHER

Supervised physical exercise training x2 weekly for 8 weeks

Physical exercise training is carried out for 1 hour per session. The exercise rehabilitation programme is carried out as group training with individual supervision. At each exercise session two-experienced physiotherapist are leading the physical exercise training. Standardized physical exercise guidelines for each training session is described and followed. It consists of the following interventions: Warm up, aerobe fitness, muscle strength training and individual education and instruction in life stills changes in relation to physical activity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Aarhus University Hospital Skejby

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jens Christian Djuurhuus, professor,MD · Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Department of Physio- and Occupationaltherapy, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-04-30

Primary Completion

2015-04-30

Completion

2015-04-30

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations