The Effect of Cardiac Rehabilitation on the Results of 6-Minute Walk Test in Post Angioplasty Cardiac Patients Referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Qom City, Iran

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the most common causes of mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cardiac rehabilitation on the results of 6-minute walk test after angioplasty. This study was an analytical cross-sectional study conducted on 96 patients who had undergone angioplasty in Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Qom City, 2014. Half of the patients who underwent cardiac rehabilitation 3 times a week for 8 weeks, were placed in the case group and the remaining were placed in the control group. Demographic data and the results of the 6-minute walk test of all the patients were obtained before and after rehabilitation in the case group and 2 weeks and 10 weeks after the operation in the control group. Assessment and comparison of the variables were performed using Chi-square, independent t-, and paired t-tests. Significance level was considered less than 0.05. The mean age of the subjects in the case group was 57.21±9.09 years and in the control group was 57.03±10.89 years, and 70.8% of the patients were male and the remaining were female. A significant difference was observed between the case and control groups in terms of the distance walked in the 6-minute test, before and after cardiac rehabilitation (p<0.001). On the other hand, comparing the distance walked between the two groups, was indicative of a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.002). Cardiac rehabilitation after angioplasty is an appropriate method for increasing functional capacity of patients, therefore it is recommended that all the patients be referred to physiotherapy and cardiac rehabilitation ward.