[Cardiac rehabilitation in acute coronary syndrome]

Recently, there have been a great advancement in diagnosis and treatment of ACS, and therefore the modality of cardiac rehabilitation has also been greatly changed. In the era of primary intervention, the hospital stay after ACS has been grossly shortened even within several days. Since morphologies and functions of the diseased coronary arteries and the left ventricle are already correctly and precisely assessed before reaching CCU, the initiation and subsequent progression of cardiac rehabilitation can be performed with great ease. On the contrary to these benefits, however, the time for patients education after ACS is greatly limited. Lifestyle modifications that are thought to be well established key elements in modern preventative cardiology has to be accomplished after discharge from the hospital. These new trends in cardiac rehabilitation must be more efficacious than previous painstaking inhospital rehabilitation procedures and can be accepted widely as economically feasible and safe treatment modalities after ACS.