title: Determination of exercise training level in coronary artery disease patients on beta blockers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the intensity of three exercise training regimens.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  During a cardiac rehabilitation program coronary artery disease (CAD) patients should be trained at an intensity as close as possible to the ventilatory threshold (VT) level. The precise way to obtain this intensity of training during the sessions, however, remains unclear.
  
  
  METHODS
  In stable beta-blocked CAD patients, heart rate (HR) and workload (WL) at the VT were determined from a cardiopulmonary exercise test. The 3 following days, each patient performed (in a randomized order) one bicycle training session per day at an intensity determined by (i) HR at VT, (ii) WL at VT, (iii) patient's feelings (14 on the Borg scale). HR, WL, systolic blood pressure, oxygen consumption (VO2) and the respiratory exchange ratio were monitored during each session, to compare the intensity of each regimen.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty patients, 57+/-10 years old were included. VO2, WL, HR and systolic blood pressure were significantly higher in the sessions driven by feelings and WL, than in the HR-driven sessions. As respiratory exchange ratio remained less than 1, we can assume that there was no important and deleterious participation of anaerobic metabolism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Classical training HR prescription could lead to undertrain CAD patients, although a training session prescription driven by the feelings or by the WL observed at VT allows the patients to train at a higher--but still aerobic--intensity.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Rehabilitation Center, Villeneuve Saint Denis, France. jtabet@free.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tabet
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meurin
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Teboul
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tartiere
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: Raymonde
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Massabie
authors.forename: Ahmed Ben
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Driss
mesh_terms: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists