No abstract

E xercise testing remains a remarkably durable and versatile tool that provides valuable diagnostic and prognostic information regarding patients with cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. Exercise testing has been available for more than a half century and, like many other cardiovascular procedures, has evolved in its technology and scope. When combined with exercise testing, adjunctive imaging modalities offer greater diagnostic accuracy, additional information regarding cardiac structure and function, and additional prognostic information. Similarly, the addition of ventilatory gas exchange measurements during exercise testing provides a wide array of unique and clinically useful incremental information that heretofore has been poorly understood and underutilized by the practicing clinician. The reasons for this are many and include the requirement for additional equipment (cardiopulmonary exercise testing [CPX] systems), personnel who are proficient in the administration and interpretation of these tests, limited or absence of training of cardiovascular specialists and limited training by pulmonary specialists in this technique, and the lack of understanding of the value of CPX by practicing clinicians.Modern CPX systems allow for the analysis of gas exchange at rest, during exercise, and during recovery and yield breath-by-breath measures of oxygen uptake (V O 2 ), carbon dioxide output (V CO 2 ), and ventilation (V E). These advanced computerized systems provide both simple and complex analyses of these data that are easy to retrieve and store, which makes CPX available for widespread use. These data can be readily integrated with standard variables measured during exercise testing, including heart rate, blood pressure, work rate, electrocardiography findings, and symptoms, to provide a comprehensive assessment of exercise tolerance and exercise responses. CPX can even be performed with adjunctive imaging modalities for additional diagnostic assessment. Hence, CPX offers the clinician the ability to obtain a wealth of information beyond standard exercise electrocardiography testing that when appropriately applied and interpreted can assist in the management of complex cardiovascular and pulmonary disease.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an evidence-based intervention that uses patient education, health behavior modification, and exercise training to improve secondary prevention outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. CR programs reduce morbidity and mortality rates in adults with ischemic heart disease, heart failure, or cardiac surgery but are significantly underused, with only a minority of eligible patients participating in CR in the United States. New delivery strategies are urgently needed to improve participation. One potential strategy is home-based CR (HBCR). In contrast to center-based CR services, which are provided in a medically supervised facility, HBCR relies on remote coaching with indirect exercise supervision and is provided mostly or entirely outside of the traditional center-based setting. Although HBCR has been successfully deployed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries, most US healthcare organizations have little to no experience with such programs. The purpose of this scientific statement is to identify the core components, efficacy, strengths, limitations, evidence gaps, and research necessary to guide the future delivery of HBCR in the United States. Previous randomized trials have generated low- to moderate-strength evidence that HBCR and center-based CR can achieve similar improvements in 3- to 12-month clinical outcomes. Although HBCR appears to hold promise in expanding the use of CR to eligible patients, additional research and demonstration projects are needed to clarify, strengthen, and extend the HBCR evidence base for key subgroups, including older adults, women, underrepresented minority groups, and other higher-risk and understudied groups. In the interim, we conclude that HBCR may be a reasonable option for selected clinically stable low- to moderate-risk patients who are eligible for CR but cannot attend a traditional center-based CR program.

EART FAILURE IS A SYNDROME characterized by dyspnea and fatigue; however, patients with heart failure often also experience diminished health status, including reductions in physical and social functioning and other dimensions of health-related quality of life. 1,2 Pharmacological and device interventions and disease management programs for heart failure have provided little or modest improvements in healthrelated quality of life. 3,4 The extent to which exercise training in addition to optimal evidence-based therapy improves patients' health status is unknown.See also p 1439.

The primary aim of the Million Hearts initiative is to prevent 1 million cardiovascular events over 5 years. Concordant with the Million Hearts’ focus on achieving more than 70% performance in the “ABCS” of aspirin for those at risk, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation, we outline the cardiovascular events that would be prevented and a road map to achieve more than 70% participation in cardiac rehabilitation (CR)/secondary prevention programs by the year 2022. Cardiac rehabilitation is a class Ia recommendation of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology after myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization, promotes the ABCS along with lifestyle counseling and exercise, and is associated with decreased total mortality, cardiac mortality, and rehospitalizations. However, current participation rates for CR in the United States generally range from only 20% to 30%. This road map focuses on interventions, such as electronic medical record–based prompts and staffing liaisons that increase referrals of appropriate patients to CR, increase enrollment of appropriate individuals into CR, and increase adherence to longer-term CR. We also calculate that increasing CR participation from 20% to 70% would save 25,000 lives and prevent 180,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States.

Background: Despite cardiac rehabilitation (CR) being shown to improve health outcomes among patients with heart disease, its use has been suboptimal. In response, the Million Hearts Cardiac Rehabilitation Collaborative developed a road map to improve CR use, including increasing participation rates to ≥70% by 2022. This observational study provides current estimates to measure progress and identifies the populations and regions most at risk for CR service underutilization. Methods and Results: We identified Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were CR eligible in 2016, and assessed CR participation (≥1 CR session attended), timely initiation (participation within 21 days of event), and completion (≥36 sessions attended) through 2017. Measures were assessed overall, by beneficiary characteristics and geography, and by primary CR-qualifying event type (acute myocardial infarction hospitalization; coronary artery bypass surgery; heart valve repair/replacement; percutaneous coronary intervention; or heart/heart-lung transplant). Among 366 103 CR-eligible beneficiaries, 89 327 (24.4%) participated in CR, of whom 24.3% initiated within 21 days and 26.9% completed CR. Eligibility was highest in the East South Central Census Division (14.8 per 1000). Participation decreased with increasing age, was lower among women (18.9%) compared with men (28.6%; adjusted prevalence ratio: 0.91 [95% CI, 0.90–0.93]) was lower among Hispanics (13.2%) and non-Hispanic blacks (13.6%) compared with non-Hispanic whites (25.8%; adjusted prevalence ratio: 0.63 [0.61–0.66] and 0.70 [0.67–0.72], respectively), and varied by hospital referral region and Census Division (range: 18.6% [East South Central] to 39.1% [West North Central]) and by qualifying event type (range: 7.1% [acute myocardial infarction without procedure] to 55.3% [coronary artery bypass surgery only]). Timely initiation varied by geography and qualifying event type; completion varied by geography. Conclusions: Only 1 in 4 CR-eligible Medicare beneficiaries participated in CR and marked disparities were observed. Reinforcement of current effective strategies and development of new strategies will be critical to address the noted disparities and achieve the 70% participation goal.

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The authors examined spouses' provision of health-related support and control as predictors of health behavior and mental health among patients participating in cardiac rehabilitation (N = 94 couples). Cross-sectional analyses revealed that spouses' support was positively associated with patient health behavior. Prospective analyses of change over 6 months (N = 65 couples) revealed that spouses' support predicted increased patient mental health, whereas spouses' control predicted decreased patient health behavior and mental health. Findings suggest that spouses' efforts to facilitate patients' healthy lifestyle behaviors are associated with patients' health behavior and mental health, but not always as spouses might intend.