Identification of the High Risk Cardiac Rehabilitation Patient

Abstract

To evaluate the question of which cardiac patients are at highest risk of cardiac arrest during exercise sessions and to study high risk patients in cardiac rehabilitation programs, the authors obtained data on 20 patients who experienced a cardiac arrest in an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program from January 1980 through December 1984. These patients were evaluated for the presence of traditionally accepted clinical indicators of poor prognosis in coronary heart disease (historical, exercise stress test, and cardiac catheterization data reflecting poor left ventricular function, electrical instability, and severe coronary artery disease). These indicators were present in 16 (80%) of the 20 before their cardiac arrests. Additionally multiple indicators were present in a majority, 10 of the 16 (63%). While not all patients who experienced cardiac arrests had these clinical indicators, they did appear to identify patients at increased risk for cardiac arrest during exercise therapy.