title: The effects of cardiac rehabilitation on overall physical capacity and myocardial perfusion in women with microvascular angina.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiac syndrome X (CSX) is linked with changes in microcirculation, without significant changes in main coronary vessels. According to European Society of Cardiology 2013 stable coronary artery disease (CAD) criteria, CSX was replaced by microvascular angina (MA). The main feature of MA should be regional myocardial ischaemia; however, there are several works on this subject which failed to demonstrate the presence of perfusion defects.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effect of non-pharmacological procedures (cardiac rehabilitation) in patients diagnosed with MA on changes in left ventricular perfusion as assessed by myocardial single photon emission computed tomography, along with potential related improvements in exercise capacity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Toward this goal we screened for the presence of CAD in a group of 528 women, of whom 55 were not only diagnosed with MA but also agreed to participate in our study, which involved myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) studies, during which exercise tests and cardiac rehabilitation were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparison of results obtained at the beginning of the study with data obtained after completion of a three month period of cardiac rehabilitation showed improvements in both exercise test parameters (length of test, metabolic equivalents, blood pressure control during extortion) and MPI parameters for the left ventricle (both at rest and stress, global and regional).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cardiac rehabilitation is a very useful tool of choice in the treatment of patients with MA.
authors.affiliation: Hygiene and Dietetics Department, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland Nuclear Medicine Department, John Paul II Hospital, Krakow, Poland. mcszot@cyf-kr.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Szot
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zając
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kubinyi
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kostkiewicz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000072038:Cardiac Rehabilitation; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017566:Microvascular Angina / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; microvascular angina; myocardial perfusion imaging