What are the components of a comprehensive cardiovascular rehabilitation program?
A comprehensive cardiovascular rehabilitation program provides patient education, enhances regular exercise, monitors risk factors, and addresses lifestyle modification. Aerobic exercise training can generally begin 1 to 2 weeks after discharge in patients treated with PCI or CABG. Mild-to-moderate resistance training can be considered and started 2 to 4 weeks after discharge. Unsupervised exercise may target a heart rate range of 60% to 75% of maximum age-predicted heart rate based on the patient's exercise stress test. Supervised training may target a higher heart rate (70% to 85% of age-predicted maximum heart rate) with additional restrictions applied when residual ischemia is present.