Key result
Aerobic cardiac rehabilitation lowers systolic blood pressure by ~6 mmHg more than conventional care post-CABG.
Why the study?
Many patients continue to have high blood pressure after CABG, and although exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation helps, it was unclear whether aerobic or resistance exercise is superior and evidence from South Asia was scarce.
Does structured aerobic-based or resistance-based cardiac rehabilitation improve blood pressure indices more than conventional cardiac rehabilitation in clinically stable post-CABG patients?
RCT (n=45)
Assessor- and statistician-blinded (participants and treating physiotherapists unblinded)
Computer-generated random sequence with sequentially numbered, opaque, sealed envelopes (SNOSE)
No
Does structured aerobic-based or resistance-based cardiac rehabilitation improve blood pressure indices more than conventional cardiac rehabilitation in clinically stable post-CABG patients?
In post-CABG patients with mildly reduced LVEF, both structured aerobic and resistance cardiac rehabilitation improved blood pressure control over 10 weeks, with aerobic-dominant training providing the greatest and only statistically significant reductions in systolic and mean arterial pressure compared to conventional care.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports aerobic cardiac rehabilitation for systolic blood pressure reduction post-CABG; extends evidence for exercise-based interventions in this population.
Introduction: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) improves patient survival but many patients still have high blood pressure afterwards than expected. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) helps in it; yet it is unclear whether an aerobic or a resistance exercise program works better and evidence from South Asia is scarce. Objective: To compare the effects of aerobic exercise CR, resistance exercise CR and conventional care on blood pressure indices in post-CABG patients. Methods: In this three-arm, single-center randomized controlled trial in Karachi, Pakistan, 45 clinically stable post-CABG patients were randomized to resistance exercise CR (Group A), aerobic exercise CR (Group B) or conventional care (Group C), 15 participants per group. Groups A and B trained three times per week for 10 weeks. Outcome assessors and statistician were blinded. Resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were measured at baseline and 10 weeks and analyzed with two-way repeated-measures ANOVA in IBM SPSS version 26.0. Results: All groups showed improvement but both exercise groups expressed statistically significant improvements in all outcome measures. Aerobic exercise CR produced largest fall in SBP (-19.4 mmHg) and MAP (-13.1 mmHg) and was only arm significantly better than conventional care after correction. Conclusions: Structured aerobic and resistance exercise CR both improved blood pressure control more than conventional care; aerobic exercises were best for blood pressure.
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Chughtai et al. (2026) conducted an RCT in Clinically stable post-coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for ischemic heart disease (n=45). Aerobic-based and resistance-based exercise cardiac rehabilitation vs. Conventional cardiac rehabilitation (20-30 min moderate aerobic plus light resistance exercise and education) was evaluated on Resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) at 10 weeks (aerobic-based CR vs conventional care) (MD 6.10 mmHg (time-averaged SBP, aerobic CR vs conventional care); Time x Group interaction ηp² = 0.42, p=0.006). Aerobic-based cardiac rehabilitation reduced systolic blood pressure by 19.4 mmHg over 10 weeks, significantly outperforming conventional care (MD 6.10 mmHg, p=0.006) in post-CABG patients.
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