Impact of biological sex on heart transplant patients admitted to cardiac rehabilitation: A 10-year retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: Heart transplantation (HTx) serves as the gold-standard therapy for end-stage heart failure, yet patients often experience physical deconditioning and cognitive impairments post-surgery. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has shown promise in the HTx context. However, uncertainty surrounds the impact of biological sex.

Short- and long-term effects of a cardiac rehabilitation program in patients implanted with a left ventricular assist device.

The efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation in heart-failure patients who received a left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) instead of heart transplantation (HTx) is still unclear. This study aims to evaluate whether cardiac rehabilitation is beneficial in LVAD as HTx patients in the short term and whether its effects in LVAD patients persist over time. Twenty-five LVAD patients were evaluated by functional and psychological tests at admission (T0) and discharge (T1) of a 4-week inpatient structured rehabilitation program, and follow-ups 3 (T2), 6 (T3), and 12 months (T4) after discharge.

Inflammatory Cytokines During Cardiac Rehabilitation After Heart Surgery and Their Association to Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation.

Inflammation is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF), but little is known about the association of AF with the inflammatory serum cytokines after the acute postoperative phase. Thus, we aimed to explore how plasma cytokines concentrations modify during a 3-week cardiac rehabilitation after heart surgery, comparing patients who developed postoperative AF (POAF) and those with permanent AF with patients free from AF (NoAF group). We enrolled 100 consecutive patients and 40 healthy volunteers as a control group.

Pentraxin-3 predicts functional recovery and 1-year major adverse cardiovascular events after rehabilitation of cardiac surgery patients.

Background: Inflammatory and vascular markers have proved to be predictors of outcome in myocardial infarction and heart failure. We evaluated several circulating markers of cardiac stress, inflammation, and endothelial function to investigate their ability to predict short-term functional recovery and long-term clinical outcome in heart surgery patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.

Methods: This prospective, multicenter study enrolled 223 patients after heart surgery, included in a 3-week program of standardized and supervised physical training.