Semi-supervised exercise training program for patients with coronary heart disease--its effectiveness and possible diagnostic implications for predicting their severity

Semi-supervised physical training for 12 weeks was performed on 60 patients with coronary heart disease including 48 patients with myocardial infarction and 12 with angina pectoris. The training program consisted of medically-supervised training at the institute once a week and unsupervised training at home at least twice a week with an intensity of 70 to 85% of the maximum heart rate which had been attained by a symptom-limited multiphasic treadmill stress testing according to Bruce's protocol. The results showed an average increase of maximum oxygen consumption from 27.0 +/- 5.7 to 31.0 +/- 7.8 ml/min X kg (p less than 0.01) and of treadmill time from 507 +/- 120 to 673 +/- 140 sec (p less than 0.0001). Cardiovascular responses reduced at a submaximal level of exercise and remained unchanged at the maximal level of exercise. No detrimental events were encountered during the program. The left heart catheterization and coronary angiogram were performed on 35 out of 60 patients. The trainability was higher in patients with single-vessel disease than in those with multi-vessel disease. Based on these results, supervised training should be required mostly for patients with low physical fitness, and patients with high physical fitness can probably improve their physical abilities by self-training at home following a proper exercise program.