One year results on a Spanish cardiac rehabilitation center

Type of funding sources: None.

Cardiac rehabilitation programs (CRP) after myocardial infarction have an I-A recommendation level, according to European clinical guidelines, but in real life their implementation is very low. To improve secondary prevention, post-infarction CRP needs to be implemented and made it accessible to the public Spanish Health-care services.

The aim of this study is to analyze the results after one year of CPR program in a tertiary Spanish hospital.

An observational study was performed on cardiac rehabilitation patients from October 2021 to November 2022. Patients were included in an individualized exercise program consisting in 3-days-supervised workout, self-home workout, life-style and nutrition lessons and medical treatment optimization. Demographics and analytic data were collected on the first visit and the last visit before discharge.

One hundred patients were included (73.7% male, median age 60.9 years (SD 8.69)). Principal cardiovascular risk factors were arterial hypertension (55.5%), diabetes (29.3%), dyslipidemia (62.9%) and smoking (37.4%). ST-elevation myocardial infarction was the main prior diagnosis (47.5%) followed by non-ST myocardial infarction (39.4) and unstable angina (10.1%). Patients improved weight control - 1.67 kg (SD 2.89), abdominal circumference -2.7 cm (SD 2.6), exercise capacity 1.84 METS (SD 2.3), diet (PREDIMET scale) 1.6 points (SD 2.3) and anxiety and depression scale -1.05 points (SD 2.07). 85,7% of patient give up smoking. LDL-cholesterol reduction was -60.3 mg/dl (SD 38.58), reaching the LDL-cholesterol target by 66.3% (levels<55mg/dl) and on diabetic patients, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) achieves an 11.5% mean reduction from basal levels, reaching target levels (Hb A1c < 7%) on 68.2%.

CRP programs are an essential in secondary prevention and their implementation should be extensive to the majority of hospitals and primary care centers to promote life-style hacks and control cardiovascular risk factors.