Early short-term intensive cardiac rehabilitation induces positive results as long as one year after the acute coronary event: a prospective one-year controlled study.

Aims: The one-year effects of early and short-term intensive cardiac rehabilitation programmes in patients after acute myocardial infarction or coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) are not well established.

Methods And Results: One to four weeks after hospital discharge for acute myocardial infarction (n=55) or CABG (n=54), 109 patients were included in a multidisciplinary ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation programme, lasting 2 to 3 months and including a mean of 33 daily sessions. A complete cardiological assessment of the classical coronary risk factors was performed at entry into the study and again 12 months later, that is 9 to 10 months after the end of the rehabilitation programme.

Exaggerated chronotropic and energetic response to dobutamine after orthotopic cardiac transplantation.

Background: After heart transplantation, the transplanted denervated heart displays both an exaggerated chronotropic and an exaggerated inotropic response to circulating catecholamines. This study assessed whether denervated transplanted hearts also display an exaggerated energetic response when challenged with dobutamine.

Methods And Results: A total of 18 heart transplant recipients and 14 normal volunteers underwent measurements of myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2), external work (EW), and pressure-volume area (PVA), at rest and during infusion of dobutamine.

Contribution of left ventricular diastolic function to exercise capacity in normal subjects.

Previous studies have established that most of the heterogeneity in exercise capacity seen with sedentariness, aging, or physical training can be accounted for by individual differences in the maximal rate of total body oxygen consumption (VO2 max) during dynamic exercise. However, the factors that limit VO2 max in normal subjects remain disputed. To test the hypothesis that differences in left ventricular diastolic performance contribute to the heterogeneity of VO2 max seen in healthy subjects, 57 normal sedentary volunteers (36 +/- 13 yr, range 20-76 yr) and 9 endurance athletes (37 +/- 8 yr, range 26-51 yr) were studied.

Regional oxidative metabolism in patients after recovery from reperfused anterior myocardial infarction. Relation to regional blood flow and glucose uptake.

Background: Enhanced uptake of the glucose analogue 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in relation to flow has been proposed as an accurate method of identifying viable myocardium. The evaluation of myocardial oxidative metabolism could be an alternate way to identify reversible injury. The aim of the present study was to investigate in patients with reperfused anterior infarction whether differences in regional oxidative metabolism exist among regions with and without flow-metabolism mismatch.

Effect of dexfenfluramine treatment on body weight, blood pressure and noradrenergic activity in obese hypertensive patients.

The effect of dexfenfluramine (dF) on body weight, blood pressure and noradrenergic activity were studied in 30 obese hypertensive patients randomly divided into two groups and treated for 3 months either with dF (30 mg daily; 16 subjects) or placebo (Pl; 14 subjects). 11 patients from the dF group and 9 patients given Pl completed the entire experimental protocol, including monthly visits for metabolic and hormonal measurements, as well as a bicycle exercise test with arterial catheterisation for haemodynamic and catecholamine measurements performed before and after 3 months of treatment. A progressive significant decrease in body weight, averaging 6.