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Cardiac rehabilitation program improves exercise capacity in heart transplantation recipients regardless of marginal donor factors

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Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is recommended to improve exercise capacity after heart transplantation (HTx); however, the effects of marginal donor factors are unclear. Forty-one recipients participated in a 3-month CR program early after HTx (mean age 39 ± 14 years; 88% male). Patients were divided into marginal (≥ 2 marginal donor factors; n = 24) and control groups (< 2 marginal donor factors; n = 17). We examined donor and recipient factors related to change in peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2) during the CR program using multiple linear regression analysis. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups, although the mean age was higher in the marginal group (43 ± 13 vs. 34 ± 14 years, p = 0.043). Peak VO2 and knee extensor muscular strength (KEMS) improved significantly in both groups (p < 0.05), but there were no observed inter-group differences. Multiple analysis revealed change in KEMS (β = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.023–1.01) as an independent predictor of change in peak VO2 after adjustment for recipients’ age, sex, and CR attendance frequency (adjusted R2 = 0.25, p = 0.0084), whereas marginal donor factors were not a predictor (p = 0.76). The CR program improved exercise capacity in HTx recipients regardless of marginal donor factors, suggesting that recipients of marginal donor hearts should be referred to CR programs.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the members of medical staff who assisted with the data collection. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing. The authors have no funding information directly relevant to the content of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Rehabilitation, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, 6-1 Kishibeshinmachi, Suita, Osaka, 564-8565, Japan

    Kazufumi Kitagaki, Yukihiro Shimada, Hidetoshi Yanagi & Michio Nakanishi

  2. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan

    Michio Nakanishi

  3. Department of Nursing, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan

    Harumi Konishi

  4. Department of Public Health, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Japan

    Kazufumi Kitagaki & Rei Ono

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  1. Kazufumi Kitagaki
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  2. Rei Ono
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  3. Yukihiro Shimada
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  4. Hidetoshi Yanagi
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  5. Harumi Konishi
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  6. Michio Nakanishi
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Contributions

Kazufumi Kitagaki made substantial contributions to conceptualization, methodology, statistics, data collection and writing the original draft. Rei Ono made substantial contributions to conceptualization, writing review and editing. Yukihiro Shimada, Hidetoshi Yanagi and Harumi Konishi made data substantial contributions to data collection. Michio Nakanishi made substantial contributions to critical revision. All authors approved the final article.

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Correspondence to Michio Nakanishi.

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The authors have no financial conflicts of interest to disclose concerning the study.

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Kitagaki, K., Ono, R., Shimada, Y. et al. Cardiac rehabilitation program improves exercise capacity in heart transplantation recipients regardless of marginal donor factors. Heart Vessels 36, 659–666 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-020-01735-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-020-01735-5

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