The Role of Cardiac Rehabilitation in Reducing Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Heart Transplant Patients

Methods for reducing major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients after heart transplantation (HTx) are critical for long-term quality outcomes.Patients with cardiopulmonary exercise testing prior to HTx and at least 1 session of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) after HTx were included. Exercise sessions were evaluated as ≥ 23 or23 sessions based on recursive partitioning. We included 140 patients who had undergone HTx (women: n = 41 (29%), age: 52 ± 12 years, body mass index: 27 ± 5 kg/mAfter adjustment for covariates of age, sex, diabetes, body mass index, and pre-HTx peak oxygen consumption, CR attendance of ≥ 23 exercise sessions was predictive of lower MACE risk following HTx. In post-HTx patients, CR was associated with MACE prevention and should be viewed as a critical tool in post-HTx treatment strategies.