A year of tailored exercise cut time spent in atrial fibrillation from 7.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent. Hospitalisations were 37 per cent lower overall and 46 per cent lower for atrial fibrillation. A quality of life score rose with exercise, but the gap against usual care did not reach significance. New cardiac rehabilitation guidelines put exercise training, emotional support and personalised education into one programme, and they now cover people with atrial fibrillation as well as recovery after a heart attack.
Time spent in atrial fibrillation, one of two co-primary endpoints, was 3.9 per cent in the exercise arm against 7.1 per cent in usual care after a year of tailored exercise. The other co-primary endpoint, the AFEQT quality of life score, rose 5.6 points with exercise and 4.4 points with usual care. That gap did not reach significance. The programme was built for people with non-permanent atrial fibrillation.[1]
Among the secondary endpoints the exercise arm had 37 per cent fewer hospitalisations overall and 46 per cent fewer for atrial fibrillation, along with better cardiorespiratory fitness and a lower resting heart rate. Bjarne Nes of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology presented the trial at the ESC Congress. The announcement states no limitation of its own.[1]
The European Society of Cardiology issued its first guidelines devoted to cardiac rehabilitation, naming exercise training, emotional support and personalised education on lifestyle and medication adherence as the core of an individualised, multidisciplinary programme. The document extends rehabilitation beyond recovery from a heart attack to people with heart failure, congenital heart disease, atrial fibrillation, a replaced heart valve, and cancer patients whose treatment has affected the heart. Two delivery modes are allowed: a hospital-based programme and a digitally enhanced home-based one with remote monitoring and teleconsultation for selected patients. The society writes that cardiac rehabilitation is often cost-saving through reduced use of health services. The full text sits in the European Heart Journal, and the guidelines were scheduled for presentation at the ESC Congress on 31 August.[2]
