Cardiac rehabilitation protocols should integrate cognitive assessment to optimize recovery and prognosis in patients with cardiovascular disease and cognitive frailty.
This review emphasizes the importance of integrating cognitive assessment into standard cardiac rehabilitation protocols to optimize recovery and prognosis in patients with cognitive frailty.
Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is strongly recommended in secondary cardiovascular prevention; indeed, in patients after cardiac surgery or with coronary artery disease or heart failure, this intervention is recommended to decrease mortality, morbidity, and disability, and to improve quality of life and cardiorespiratory fitness. Moreover, each step of the cardiovascular continuum denotes a potential risk factor for the progression of cognitive frailty; this interaction is highly prevalent, affecting approximately one-third of all patients in cardiology settings. For these reasons, CR should consider the patient’s cognitive domain; however, cognitive assessment is still rarely integrated into standard CR protocols. Therefore, this comprehensive review presents current evidence and recent updates on the interaction between CR and cognitive impairment, focusing on physiological mechanisms, core components, benefits, and strategies for implementing CR in patients with cognitive frailty to optimize recovery and prognosis.
Visco et al. (Sat,) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment. Cardiac rehabilitation was evaluated. Cardiac rehabilitation protocols should integrate cognitive assessment to optimize recovery and prognosis in patients with cardiovascular disease and cognitive frailty.