Cardiac Rehabilitation: Clinical Challenges and New Insights

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Cardiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 June 2025 | Viewed by 519

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
Interests: echocardiography; cardiac rehabilitation; atrial fibrillation; sudden cardiac death; ischemic heart disease

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a global issue and deaths from CVD continue to increase. Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is a proven interdisciplinary modality based on counseling and physical training aimed to improve exercise capacity, cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality amongst several CVDs. International guidelines recommend CR with Class I Level of recommendation A/B (based on the disease) to support its use. CR is globally underutilized despite a 26–36% reduction in CV mortality and 13–27% reduction in all-cause mortality as a result of it use. This is due to both system and personal barriers, leading patients to not participate or complete a CR program. In addition, in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic made the situation even worse, adding a further barrier to attending or completing CR; indeed, most programs were temporarily closed during the pandemic and several never reopened after the pandemic. To overcome these limitations, further alternative options to in-person CR programs have been suggested, with equivalent benefits, safety and patient satisfaction. Alternative options include virtual CR (all CR components are performed via a virtual and on-demand platform), hybrid CR (a blend of in-person and virtual CR) and home-based CR. Compared to traditional CR programs, hybrid models of CR offer several potential advantages. They facilitate eligible patients who are unable to visit rehabilitation centers for various reasons (eliminating “CR deserts”), decrease medical costs and improve patient satisfaction and adherence to CR.

Dr. Melissa Tracy
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • cardiovascular disease
  • cardiac rehabilitation
  • atrial fibrillation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 1114 KiB  
Article
Relationship Between Health-Related Quality of Life and Exercise Tolerance Improvement in Remote Cardiac Rehabilitation: Sub-Analysis of RecRCR Study
by Mai Shimbo, Eisuke Amiya, Takahiro Jimba, Hidetaka Itoh, Koichi Narita, Masanobu Taya, Toshiaki Kadokami, Takanori Yasu, Hideki Oka, Masakazu Sogawa, Hiroyoshi Yokoi, Kazuo Mizutani, Shin-ichiro Miura, Tatsuo Tokeshi, Ayumi Date, Takahisa Noma, Daisuke Kutsuzawa, Soichiro Usui, Shigeo Sugawara, Masanori Kanazawa, Hisakuni Sekino, Miho Nishitani Yokoyama, Takahiro Okumura, Yusuke Ugata, Shinichiro Fujishima, Kagami Hirabayashi, Yuta Ishizaki, Koichiro Kuwahara, Yuko Kaji, Hiroki Shimizu, Teruyuki Koyama, Hitoshi Adachi, Yoko Kurumatani, Ryoji Taniguchi, Katsuhiko Ohori, Hirokazu Shiraishi, Takashi Hasegawa, Shigeru Makita, Issei Komuro, Norihiko Takeda, Yutaka Kimura and RecRCR Registry Investigatorsadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(10), 3265; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14103265 - 8 May 2025
Viewed by 328
Abstract
Background: Remote cardiac rehabilitation (RCR) is emerging alternative to outpatient rehabilitation. However, evidence related to its effect on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is limited. Methods: This is a sub-analysis of the RecRCR study, a multi-center, nonrandomized trial evaluating the efficacy and safety [...] Read more.
Background: Remote cardiac rehabilitation (RCR) is emerging alternative to outpatient rehabilitation. However, evidence related to its effect on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is limited. Methods: This is a sub-analysis of the RecRCR study, a multi-center, nonrandomized trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of RCR with real-time telemonitoring in patients with CVD, after discharge. The Short-Form Health Survey-8 was employed to evaluate the HRQOL before and 2–3 months after RCR. Based on the improvement of exercise tolerance, the patients were divided into I group (>10% improvement) and NI group (≤10% improvement). Results: Of 57 patients who completed RCR, 31 patients were included for analysis of HRQOL, including 15 (I group) and 16 patients (NI group). The physical (PCS) (45.5 ± 8.0 to 52.5 ± 4.0, p < 0.001) and mental (MCS) component scores (47.5 ± 7.9 to 51.0 ± 5.6, p = 0.005) improved significantly in all populations following RCR. The PCS improved significantly in the I and NI groups, respectively. By contrast, only in the I group, the MCS improved. However, the change in PCS or MCS was not significantly different between the two groups. The increases of MCS significantly associated with days from admission to the beginning of RCR (rs = −0.51, p = 0.007). Conclusions: In multifaced contents of HRQOL, the scores in PCS or MCS changed differently from the change in exercise capacity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cardiac Rehabilitation: Clinical Challenges and New Insights)
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