ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To determine the impacts of cardiac rehabilitation on exercise capacity, quality of life (QOL), and functional status in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). DESIGN: Self-controlled clinical trial. METHODS: CAD patients with mild to moderate left ventricular dysfunction participated in an exercise-based rehabilitation program for eight consecutive weeks. Subjects underwent an exercise test before and 8 weeks after rehabilitation. QOL was assessed with the SF-36 questionnaire. Functional status was assessed in terms of sleep time, walking, cycling, exercise, and working duration. FINDINGS: Seventy patients (age=57.5±10.2 years, 77.1% male) were studied. After rehabilitation, peak exercise capacity increased from 8.00±2.56 to 10.08±3.00 METs (p<.001) and exercise duration increased from 14.17±5.27 to 17.21±5.85 minutes (p<.001). Patients' QOL improved in physical and psychological dimensions (p<.05). Cycling, walking, and exercising status significantly increased after the study (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac rehabilitation improves exercise capacity, QOL, and functional status of CAD patients with mild to moderate left ventricular dysfunction. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Cardiac rehabilitation practitioners should encourage patients to attend to and be compliant in the rehabilitation programs.
Subject(s)
Coronary Artery Disease/rehabilitation , Exercise Therapy/methods , Rehabilitation Nursing/methods , Ventricular Dysfunction, Left/rehabilitation , Activities of Daily Living , Aged , Coronary Artery Disease/complications , Female , Humans , Iran , Male , Middle Aged , Quality of Life , Treatment Outcome , Ventricular Dysfunction, Left/complicationsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sub-acute left-sided bacterial endocarditis is a serious condition that may present with variable clinical manifestations. Its symptoms include both sterile and infected emboli, and various immunological phenomena. CASE REPORT: This report presents a 55 year old man with frequency and dysuria after a lithotripsy and several admissions with urosepsis. Due to the suspicion of infective endocarditis echocardiography was done which confirmed streptococcus group B endocarditis. CONCLUSION: Streptococci group B is one of the rare causes of infective endocarditis, but it was observed after various producers such as lithotripsy.
ABSTRACT
Introduction. The accurate impact of exercise on coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with left ventricular dysfunction is still debatable. We studied the effects of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on echocardiography parameters in CAD patients with ventricular dysfunction. Methods. Patients with CAD who had ventricular dysfunction were included into an exercise-based rehabilitation program and received rehabilitation for eight weeks. All subjects underwent echocardiography before and at the end of the rehabilitation program. The echocardiography parameters, including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), LV end-diastolic (LVEDD) and end-systolic diameters (LVESD), and peak exercise capacity measured in metabolic equivalents (METs), were assessed. Results. Seventy patients (mean age = 57.5 ± 10.2 years, 77.1% males) were included into the study. At the end of rehabilitation period, the LVEF increased from 45.14 ± 5.77% to 50.44 ± 8.70% (P < 0.001), and the peak exercise capacity increased from 8.00 ± 2.56 to 10.08 ± 3.00 METs (P < 0.001). There was no significant change in LVEDD (54.63 ± 12.96 to 53.86 ± 8.95 mm, P = 0.529) or in LVESD (38.91 ± 10.83 to 38.09 ± 9.04 mm, P = 0.378) after rehabilitation. Conclusion. Exercise training in postmyocardial infarction patients with ventricular dysfunction could have beneficial effects on cardiac function without adversely affecting LV remodeling or causing serious cardiac complications.
