Comparison of Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise on Hemodynamic and Biomechanical Indices between Middle-Aged and Older Males with Coronary Artery Disease Following a Cardiac Event or Therapeutic Interventions

Introduction: Although it is documented that cardiac rehabilitation has a positive effect on hemodynamics and functional biomechanics of the heart, the effect of various types of exercise in this field, in different periods of life such as middle-aged and older male adults, is thought-provoking. This study was undertaken to compare cardiac rehabilitation training on selected hemodynamic and biomechanical indices between middle-aged and older male adults with coronary artery disease following a cardiac event or therapeutic interventions. Materials and Methods: Thirty two middle-aged and older male adults with coronary artery disease were randomly and equally divided into two aerobic and concurrent exercise groups. With the permission of a cardiologist in the imaging center, the exercise test was performed in the pre-test stage. After eight weeks of cardiac rehabilitation training in the biomechanics laboratory of the physical medicine center, the post-test phase was performed. To analyze the data from mean and standard deviation, one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc test was utilized to check differences between groups at the significant level of P≤0.05. Results: After eight weeks of aerobic training, a significant difference was observed in the improvement of functional capacity and diastolic blood pressure (P≤0.05) between the middle-aged and older male adults groups, but not for left ventricular ejection fraction indices, resting heart rate and systolic blood pressure (P>0.05). Followed by concurrent training as well, a significant difference was observed in the improvement of functional capacity indices, left ventricular ejection fraction, resting heart rate, and diastolic blood pressure (P≤0.05), but not for index of systolic blood pressure was not observed (P>0.05). Conclusion: The results of the research confirmed the effectiveness of both types of aerobic and concurrent training in improving hemodynamic and functional biomechanics of the heart. In the comparison between middle-aged and older male adults, the effect of aerobic exercise on the older male adults and the effect of concurrent exercise on the middle-aged can be considered more prominent. It seems that the priority of using concurrent training over aerobic training can be taken into consideration.