Exercise Prescription in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, Myocardial Infarction, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

In brief

Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is an effective exercise-based lifestyle therapy for patients with cardiac disease. There are two common methods of exercise prescription, an effort based exercise prescription and target heart rate based exercise prescription. The purpose of this research study is to identify the best way to exercise in cardiac rehabilitation. There are three main goals of this study. First, the investigators want to know if an exercise test should be done near the beginning of cardiac rehabilitation. Second, the investigators want to understand what type of exercises should be recommend to patients. Third, the investigators want to understand if a personal heart rate monitor will improve adherence to a target heart rate for exercise. As part of this study, some patients will undergo an exercise stress test on a treadmill to determine a target heart rate. These patients will be given a heart rate goal to use when they exercise. Some patients will be given a personal heart rate monitor to improve adherence.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03925493

Run by

Baystate Medical Center

People needed

48

Starts

2019-06-17

Expected to finish

2020-09-03

Last updated by the study team

2021-01-12

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 100. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Patients who are referred with an eligible diagnosis to CR.
• Patients with myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention, or bypass surgery

You may not qualify if…

• Permanent Atrial fibrillation, as this would interfere with using a target heart rate range during cardiac rehabilitation.
• Patients with pacemakers, as the polar heart rate monitor interferes with pacing lines on the telemetry system.
• Stable angina, as chest pain could become a limiting factor as exercise training progresses, rather than using target heart rates.
• Patients with high risk unrevascularized coronary artery disease including left main coronary disease >60% or proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) >80%, per the discretion of the medical director.
• Patients with heart transplant or left-ventricular assist device, as heart rates can be inaccurate and difficult to measure.
• Patients who plan to attend fewer than 12 sessions of CR, for reasons that might include need to return to work, high copays, transportation, lack of insurance, or lack of interest in the program.
• Patients who join the Baystate CR program after having completed more than 3 sessions of CR at a different CR program.
• Major orthopedic limitations to exercise, such as history of amputation or exercise-limiting joint pain, or inability to walk on a treadmill, because all patients will have to complete a stress test on a treadmill and objective data collected during CR will be recorded during treadmill exercise.
• Patients who plan to undergo a clinically indicated stress test in the next 3 months as this would potentially interfere with the exercise prescription in the control group.
• Any elective hospitalization or revascularization procedure (such as PCI or CABG) that are planned to occur in the next 3 months. These could interrupt exercise training or change target heart rate ranges.
• Any other condition in which exercise training or exercise testing would be contraindicated such as severe uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, arrhythmia, or severe valvular disease, as determined by the Medical Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation.
• Any other condition that would prohibit adherence to study protocols, such as active drug use, or untreated mental health conditions that would interfere with following instructions.
• Patients judged to be at very high or high-risk of early drop-out, per current program risk stratification

Where it is running

• Baystate Medical Center — Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.