Secondary Prevention Recommendation Attainment with Cardiac Rehabilitation: Is There a Gender Disparity?

Background: Achievement of secondary prevention guideline recommendations (i.e., goals) with cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is not well-documented, especially for women.

Patient and program outcome assessment in pulmonary rehabilitation: an AACVPR statement.

Quantifying and analyzing pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) results in the form of an outcome assessment are a means of evaluating patient performance and program effectiveness. Implementation of a structured outcome assessment is feasible and parallels many aspects of the traditional rehabilitation evaluation. This statement outlines key components to PR outcome evaluation in the context of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation PR Outcome Matrix and includes a discussion of some of the popular tools used to collect measurement data.

Measuring behavioral outcomes in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation: AN AACVPR STATEMENT.

Outcome measurement in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation is required for optimal assessment of program quality, effectiveness of treatments, and evaluation of patient progress. Recent position statements from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Thoracic Society, and American College of Chest Physicians have provided state-of-the-art information on the importance of assessing performance and outcome measures for optimal program effectiveness. Such measures are also required for AACVPR program certification.

Classic intermittent claudication is an uncommon manifestation of lower extremity peripheral arterial disease in hospitalized patients with coronary artery disease.

Synchronous peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) is common. Standardized questionnaires such as the Rose/WHO questionnaire and later the Edinburgh modification of this questionnaire were developed to screen for PAD. Little data are available on the sensitivity of these questionnaires in hospitalized patients with CAD.

Lower extremity peripheral arterial disease in hospitalized patients with coronary artery disease.

The prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has been well defined. However, the prevalence of PAD in hospitalized patients with CAD has not been defined. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a useful non-invasive tool to screen for PAD.

Smoking status after cardiac events and participation in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation.

Purpose: Smoking cessation is a priority for patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Smoking correlates and predictors were studied after CVD events in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (OCR) with the aim of characterizing CVD patients at high risk for continued smoking.

Methods: Subjects hospitalized during 1996-2002 for CVD events were referred to OCR.

The Wisconsin outcomes experience: baseline outcomes of the WISCVPR Web-based Outcomes Project.

Purpose: The measurement of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (OCR) outcomes is now considered common practice. Unfortunately, because of the costs involved in purchasing outcomes tracking software, many programs are not able to participate in pooled outcomes analysis and benchmarking. The purpose of this report is to describe the current OCR outcomes data in the state of Wisconsin using a web-based model for outcomes data collection, data pooling, and benchmarking.

The surveillance of cholesterol management in the cardiac rehabilitation setting.

Purpose: To evaluate the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in the cardiac rehabilitation setting by quantifying the percentage of patients on lipid lowering therapy, the percentage of patients who have received diet counseling, and the percentage of patients with a lipid panel documented by discharge.

Methods: The Web-based database of the Wisconsin Society for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, representing 1477 patients, was examined for patient outcomes. A survey was sent to programs to assess the processes in place to assist patients in managing cholesterol and reaching a low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) goal of less than 100 mg/dL.