Influence of Training Intensity on Exercise Capacity and Risk Profile in Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is associated with high mortality worldwide. Narrowing of the coronary arteries can cause an acute myocardial infarction. Patient with cardiac ischemia are often treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Following hospitalisation, the patients are offered to attend a classical rehabilitation program with moderate exercise intensity. Current exercise program for cardiac rehabilitation has proven to reduce cardiovascular risk factors 1. Is it possible to improve the exercise capacity and risk profile even more if the exercise program includes more vigorous training? The program starts one week after the cardiac incident (AMI, PCI or CABG) and takes 12 weeks to complete. Patients with heart failure and valvular disease are excluded. First ventilatory threshold (VT1) and second ventilatory threshold (VT2) are determined during cycloerometry. VT2 reflects aerobic-anaerobic transition and therefore the aerobic functional capacity2. Exercise load reached at VT2 is used to determine the training load during rehabilitation.

The research goal is to investigate the influence of training intensity on the exercise capacity and risk profile of CAD patients.