Contemporary Cardiac Rehabilitation: Patient Characteristics and Temporal Trends Over the Past Decade

Abstract

There is a significant trend in the attendance and completion of CR programs by older individuals, which suggests a greater awareness of patients and their physicians. The growth of the program is fueled by high-risk patients with more comorbidities who potentially are the group of patients able to obtain the greatest absolute benefit from CR.

AACVPR/ACC/AHA 2007 Performance Measures on Cardiac Rehabilitation for Referral to and Delivery of Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Services

“…There is a growing trend among patients referred to and completing early outpatient CR to be older, at higher risk, and have more chronic comorbidities (48). Medical supervision is the most important day-to-day safety factor in CR (43).…”

AACVPR/ACC/AHA 2007 Performance Measures on Cardiac Rehabilitation for Referral to and Delivery of Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Services

“…48 Medical supervision is the most important day-to-day safety factor in CR. 43 Personnel and equipment for ACLS are essential to the adequate delivery of emergency care for patients who experience cardiac arrest or other life-threatening events during CR sessions.…”

Impact of exercise on blood lipids and lipoproteins

“…3,4 As a therapeutic tool, exercisebased cardiac rehabilitation has demonstrated a 20% to 25% reduction in total mortality and 30% to 35% decrease in cardiovascular mortality in coronary disease patients. 5,6 In view of the well-established causal role of dyslipidemia in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease, there has been a substantial interest to elucidate the lipid and lipoprotein mechanisms responsible for the beneficial consequences of greater energy expenditure and exercise on cardiovascular health. Exercise has the largest impact on so-called atherogenic dyslipidemia, characterized by low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high triglycerides (TG), and small-dense lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) particles.…”