The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 342:454-460 February 17, 2000 Number 7
NextNext

Effect of Exercise on Coronary Endothelial Function in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease
Rainer Hambrecht, M.D., Anamaria Wolf, M.D., Stephan Gielen, M.D., Axel Linke, M.D., Jürgen Hofer, B.S., Sandra Erbs, M.D., Nina Schoene, M.D., and Gerhard Schuler, M.D.

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF

Commentary
-Editorial
 by Vita, J. A.
-Letters

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background Studies of the cardioprotective effects of exercise training in patients with coronary artery disease have yielded contradictory results. Exercise training has been associated with improvement in myocardial perfusion even in patients who have progression of coronary atherosclerosis. We therefore conducted a prospective study of the effect of exercise training on endothelial function in patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods We randomly assigned 19 patients with coronary endothelial dysfunction, indicated by abnormal acetylcholine-induced vasoconstriction, to an exercise-training group (10 patients) or a control group (9 patients). To reduce confounding, patients with coronary risk factors that could be influenced by exercise training (such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking) were excluded. In an initial study and after four weeks, the changes in vascular diameter in response to the intracoronary infusion of increasing doses of acetylcholine (0.072, 0.72, and 7.2 µg per minute) were assessed. The mean peak flow velocity was measured by Doppler velocimetry, and the diameter of epicardial coronary vessels was measured by quantitative coronary angiography.

Results In the initial study, the two groups had similar vasoconstrictive responses to acetylcholine. After four weeks of exercise training, coronary-artery constriction in response to acetylcholine at a dose of 7.2 µg per minute was reduced by 54 percent (from a mean [±SE] decrease in the luminal diameter of 0.41±0.05 mm in the initial study to a decrease of 0.19±0.07 mm at four weeks; P<0.05 for the comparison with the change in the control group). In the exercise-training group, the increases in mean peak flow velocity in response to 0.072, 0.72, and 7.2 µg of acetylcholine per minute were 12±7, 36±11, and 78±16 percent, respectively, in the initial study. After four weeks of exercise, the increases in response to acetylcholine were 27±7, 73±19, and 142±28 percent (P< 0.01 for the comparison with the control group). Coronary blood-flow reserve (the ratio of the mean peak flow velocity after adenosine infusion to the resting velocity) increased by 29 percent after four weeks of exercise (from 2.8±0.2 in the initial study to 3.6±0.2 after four weeks; P<0.01 for the comparison with the control group).

Conclusions Exercise training improves endothelium-dependent vasodilatation both in epicardial coronary vessels and in resistance vessels in patients with coronary artery disease.


Source Information

From the University of Leipzig Heart Center, Department of Medicine and Cardiology, Leipzig, Germany.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Hambrecht at the Herzzentrum, Universität Leipzig, Russenstr. 19, 04289 Leipzig, Germany, or at hamr{at}server3.medizin.uni-leipzig.de.

Full Text of this Article


Related Letters:

Exercise and Coronary Endothelial Function
Georgiou D., Belardinelli R., Hambrecht R., Gielen S., Schuler G.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 2000; 343:147-148, Jul 13, 2000. Correspondence

This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.