Effects of home-based strength training during COVID-19 lockdown in acute coronary syndrome

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Cardiac rehabilitation has the highest level of recognition in medical guideline references. The rise of COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the first months of strict containment, cause to temporally stop most of the ongoing programs. We studied the effects of an interdisciplinary phase II secondary prevention in patients diagnosed with a recent acute coronary syndrome with the use of new technologies, home-exercise and telemedicine. Methods: Between the 2nd and 11th of March 2020, we included 37 patients with recent acute coronary syndrome (76.4%), low-risk and preserved systolic function and underwent a 12-week treatment. A dynamic muscle toning with overload domiciliary training program was applied, in addition to nutritional counselling, as well as psychological and educational therapy. Results: Of the initial cohort, 30 patients finished. At the end of the program, we observed and increased functional capacity over the 6-min walking test (+47.13 m; 95% CI: 32.82-61.45, P