Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for CCS patients

A crucial factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases is physical inactivity. This was confirmed by Buckley BJR et al’s study, where prescribing exercise as a form of cardiac rehabilitation showed associations with reduced risk of all-cause death and rehospitalisation at an 18 month follow up. 18,383 patients with chronic coronary syndrome were included in the study, with 4,368 patients receiving exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation.
It was also found that combining percutaneous coronary intervention and exercise-based rehabilitation for patients with chronic coronary syndrome only lowered the risk of heart failure, but not all-cause death, acute myocardial infarction or stroke.

This review by Buckley BJR et al. aimed to understand the role of exercise in patients suffering from chronic coronary syndrome, as well as compare the outcomes to the addition of percuntaenous coronary intervention.

Key learnings:

Using exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is more helpful than percutaneous coronary intervention alone, highlighting the central role that exercise plays in managing and improving clinical outcomes of chronic coronary syndrome. Future studies exploring this as an alternative to the invasive method of percutaneous coronary intervention are needed.