title: The effect of a self exercise program in cardiac rehabilitation for patients with coronary artery disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of self exercise in cardiac rehabilitation on cardiopulmonary exercise capacity for selected patients with coronary artery disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects of this study were patients who received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and who participated in a cardiac rehabilitation program. The supervised exercise group participated in 6-8 weeks of aerobic exercise training with telemetry ECG monitoring in hospital. The self exercise group, whose exercise risk was low, was instructed to participiate in self exercise training in a community exercise environment according to the exercise tolerance test (ETT) using a modified Bruce protocol. Both groups underwent ETTs before and 6 months after initiation of the cardiac rehabilitation program. We compared the supervised group with the self exercise groups on exercise capacity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 6 months, the supervised exercise group showed significant changes in maximum oxygen consumption, maximal heart rate, resting heart rate, and submaximal rate pressure product. The self exercise group also showed significant improvement of maximum oxygen consumption and submaximal rate pressure product. However, the changing rate of maximum oxygen consumption was significantly higher in the supervised exercise group than the self exercise group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both the supervised and self exercise groups showed similar improvement of cardiopulmonary exercise capacity after 6 months' participation in the cardiac rehabilitation program. However, the changing rate of maximum oxygen consumption, maximal heart rate, and resting heart rate were significantly higher in the supervised exercise group than the self exercise group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul 139-707, Korea.
authors.forename: Chul
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jo Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.forename: Hee Eun
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Choi