EFFECTS OF CARDIAC REHABILITATION ON FUNCTIONAL EXERCISE CAPACITY, QUALITY OF LIFE AND DEPRESSION

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (CRP) is a comprehensive program developed specifically for the patients aims to improve functional exercise capacity, quality of life, and psychosocial status. This study aims to investigate the effect of CRP in retrospectively on patients who went through percutaneous coronary interference (PCI) with coronary artery disease (CAD) diagnosis and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) history.MATERIAL AND METHODS: 38 patients with CAD diagnosis and 12 patients with CABG history who underwent through PCI were assessed retrospectively. CRP consists of 5 minutes of warm-up, 10 minutes of joint range of motion, a 15 minute-tone-up exercise for the greater muscle groups, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise through constant heart rate training program by using bicycle ergometer exercise and 5 minutes of cool-down exercise. A total of 30 sessions were applied. The demographic data of the patients were recorded. 6-minute-walk-test (6-MWT), Short Form- 36 (SF-36), and Beck depression inventory were used respectively to assess the functional exercise capacity, quality of life, and the level of depression of the patients for their before and after the rehabilitation process.RESULTS: Physical function (p<0.001), physical role (p=0.001), emotional role (p=0.01), pain (p=0.03), overall health (p=0.04) of life quality parameters, 6-MWT (p<0.001) and value of Beck depression inventory (p<0.001) showed significant improvement after the rehabilitation process of patients with CAD diagnosis. Furthermore, significant improvement was found in physical role difficulty and emotional role (p=0.001), which are from the quality of life parameters, and 6 MWT (p<0.001) and BDI (p<0.001) after rehabilitation in patients with CABG.CONCLUSIONS: The cardiopulmonary aerobic exercise program that is applied together with cycle ergometer exercise improves the functional exercise capacity and the life quality of the patients with CAD diagnosis and CABG history and helps bring down the depression level of the patients.