Impact of Exercise-based Cardiac Rehabilitation on In-stent Restenosis with Different Generations of Drug Eluting Stent.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the rate of restenosis between a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) group and a control group within three different generations of drug eluting stents (DES).


METHODS
Patients who received DES due to an acute coronary syndrome were included. They were divided into a CR group and a control group. The CR group received six to eight weeks of early cardiac rehabilitation program in a hospital setting, and sustained a self-exercise program for six months in a community. The control group was instructed to exercise by themselves after leaving the hospital. Nine months after the first onset of disease, we implemented a coronary angiography and compared the two groups. In addition, we divided the patients into three subgroups according to the generation of DES, and compared the rate of restenosis between the CR group and control group within these three subgroups.


RESULTS
At 9 months, in-stent restenosis, measured as an in-segment late luminal loss (LLL) of the stented coronary area, was smaller in the CR group (n=52) 0.16±0.42 mm compared to the control group (n=51) 0.39±0.78 mm (p<0.05). A reduction of LLL in the CR group compared to the control group was consistent among the three different generations of DES.


CONCLUSIONS
The CR program is strongly associated with a significant reduction in LLL in the stented coronary segments, regardless of the generation of DES.
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul 139-707, Korea.
Chul
C
Kim
Hee Eun
HE
Choi
Byung Ok
BO
Kim
Min Ho
MH
Lim