Abstract

Objectives: The present study was done to evaluate the effect of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on heart rate recovery (HRR) in Egyptian patients with acute myocardial infarction after successful primary percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PPCI)
Patients and methods: This study was conducted on sixty adult patients who were selected from CR clinic in Ain Shams University hospital (cardiology department) between November 2015 and November 2016. They were divided into two groups: Group I included 30 patients who joined and completed the CR program, Group II included also 30 patients who joined CR program but did not complete the course of rehabilitation. These patients were almost 15 days post successful primary PCI with single vessel disease. They did exercise test before CR to calculate HRR at one and two min (HRR1 and HRR2 respectively) and to rule out residual ischemia. Exercise test was repeated after the program.
Results: We found a highly significant improvement in HRR1 and HRR2 in group I, and in lipid profile parameters compared to group II. There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding Left ventricular function assessment.
Conclusion: The present study found that CR program improves HRR1, HRR2, and Lipid profile so CR program should be implemented in routine management of Egyptian ischemic patients.

Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation; Heart rate recovery; Myocardial infarction; Primary PCI; Egypt