AIM AIM To evaluate the changes of cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients suffering coronary heart disease (CHD) with single vessel disease diagnosed by coronary angiography (CAG) or computerized tomography (CT) and to explore the changes of exercise tolerance and sustained exercise ability.
METHODS 144 CHD patients were enrolled whose CPET testing indexes were collected before and after CPI from April 2016 to June 2017 and compared for physical capacity. Postoperative follow-up data were collected to analyze the improvement of PCI indexes after exercise based cardiac rehabilitation.
RESULTS In preoperative CPET, 8 patients were positive for exercise test. One patient was positive after operative. There was a significant difference between the preoperative and postoperative patients in positive cardiopulmonary exercise test (P=0.042). Before and after PCI, VO2 at AT, METs at AT, FVC and FEV1 were lower than the normal value and there was no statistically significant difference in the preoperative and postoperative indexes. Compared with those before operative, exercise duration (8.50±3.89, 10.41±4.00), VO2maxml/(kg·min)(15.95±4.20, 17.65±0.65) and METsmax (4.59±1.20, 5.11±0.55) had significant statistical difference (P<0.001). The follow-up data of PCI+CR were analyzed by comparing immediate postoperative data. Sustained exercise time (9.98±4.22, 10.61±4.52), resting heart rate (69.87±7.84, 68.01±6.48), VO2 at AT (11.27±2.57, 11.49±2.38), METs at AT (3.51±0.82, 3.75±0.96) and VO2max (16.88±4.63, 18.68±4.12) were significantly improved (P<0.05).
CONCLUSION PCI alleviates chest pain symptoms and increases exercise duration and VO2max in patients with single vessel disease, indicating that PCI can relieve ischemic symptoms and improve exercise ability. Follow-up after cardiac rehabilitation by exercise prescription formulated by CPET demonstrates that the indexes of cardiopulmonary function were improved significantly.
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