[Effects of long-term exercise training on left ventricular function and remodeling in patients with anterior wall...

To assess the effects of long-term exercise training on the function and remodeling of the left ventricle after myocardial infarction.

We studied 90 patients with a first acute anterior-wall myocardial infarction, all received conventional medical treatment. Symptom-limited maximal exercise stress tests, echocardiograms and effort-rest isotopic ventriculographies at 2, 6 and 12 months after myocardial infarction were performed; the follow-up time averaged 36.3±17 months. All patients joined a cardiac rehabilitation program with moderate or intense exercise training lasting at least a year. Of all patients, 41.1% suffered severe left ventricle dysfunction.

Ergometric parameters that expressed functional capacity increased significantly (P<.0005) at the sixth month evaluation and remained unchanged after a year. There was significant decrease (P<.01) of exercise myocardial ischemia at 6 months. The variables that measured size and function of left ventricle did not change during evolution. Morbidity amounted to 16.7% and total mortality of the series was 13.3%, with 8.9% of cardiovascular cause.

Long-term exercise training showed no deleterious effects on left ventricle function or remodeling and beneficial functional and clinical effects were obtained in these rehabilitated postinfarction patients.