Baseline Systolic Blood Pressure Response to Exercise Stress Test Can Predict Exercise Indices following Cardiac Rehabilitation Program

BACKGROUND Systolic blood pressure recovery (rSBP) is of prognostic value for predicting the survival and co-morbidity rate in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). This study investigated the association between rSBP and exercise indices after complete cardiac rehabilitation program (CR) in a population-based sample of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS The sample population consisted of 352 patients who underwent pure CABG. The patients underwent standard symptom-limited exercise testing immediately before and also after the completion of the CR sessions. rSBP was defined as the ratio of the systolic blood pressure at 3 minutes in recovery to the systolic blood pressure at peak exercise. RESULTS An abnormal baseline rSBP after exercise was a strong predictor of exercise parameters in the last session, including metabolic equivalents (β = -0.617, SE = 0.127, p value < 0.001) and peak O2 consumption (β = -1.950, SE = 0.363, p value < 0.001) measured in the last session adjusted for baseline exercise characteristics, demographics, function class, and left ventricular ejection fraction. CONCLUSION The current study strongly emphasizes the predictive role of baseline rSBP after exercise in evaluating exercise parameters following CR. This baseline index can predict abnormal METs value, peak O2 consumption, post-exercise heart rate, and heart rate recovery after a 24-session CR program.