Resting heart rate changes in patients referring to cardiac rehabilitation

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation is an exercise-based program designed for cardiovascular patients to restore their cardiovascular function. The present study aimed to show the effects of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation on resting heart rate. Materials and Methods: This is was retrospective descriptive study by reviewing the medical records of cardiovascular patients referred to Shaheed Rajaei Cardiac Rehabilitation Center between 2001-2009. Amongst 410 patients, according to the inclusion criteria 210 patients, 20 (%9.5) female and 190 (%90.5) male with a mean age of (55±10.7) years were entered the study The cardiac rehabilitation program was telemetry monitored and clinically supervised with sessions of 45-60 minutes , three times per week. Mean resting heart rates and its percentages of maximal heart rate at 3 first sessions (sessions 1, 2, 3), 3 mid sessions (sessions 11, 12, 13) and 3 end sessions (sessions 22, 23, 24) were obtained and compared with each other. The data was analyzed by SPSS and Paired t test, T-test and Pearson’s correlation. Results: Mean resting heart rate at 3 first sessions was (75±7.9 beat/min), at 3 mid sessions was (73±6.7 beat/min) and at 3 end sessions was (71±7.3 beat/min).There were no statistically significant difference between male and female mean resting heart rates. Pearson’s correlation showed very weak but significant correlation between age and percentages of maximal heart rate of resting heart rate at those three parts of sessions (r=0.22 p<0.05). There were significant differences between mean resting heart rate after completing 12 session and 24 sessions. (P<0.001) Conclusion: This study demonstrated improvement in resting HR distribution measures among coronary heart disease (CHD) patients enrolled in a structured phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation program. These effects are more prominent by increasing the exercise sessions especially in patients with higher age groups.