Routine exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation does not increase aerobic fitness: A CARE CR study

摘要

Background: Recent evidence suggests that routine exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) may not lead to a substantial increase in estimated peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). This could reduce the potential benefits of CR and explain why CR no longer improves patient survival in recent studies. We aimed to determine whether routine exercise-based CR increases VO2peak using gold-standard maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), and to quantify the exercise training stimulus which might be insufficient in patients undertaking CR.