Exercise is an important physiological activity with several health benefits. In the setting of ischemic heart disease (IHD), the view toward exercise has greatly evolved throughout the years, concurrently to several major advances in the management of this complex entity. Currently, exercise training has broad applications across the IHD continuum as a powerful tool in its overall management, being a core component of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation programs. Beyond this, exercise has also been incorporated as an integral part of contemporary methodologies aiming to provide diagnostic and prognostic data, such as cardiopulmonary exercise stress testing or stress echocardiography. In this article, we provide a pragmatic overview concerning the role of exercise in IHD, with a focus on its incorporation in cardiac rehabilitation frameworks, while also discussing some of the challenges and unmet needs concerning these interventions.
Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; exercise; exercise training; ischemic heart disease; preventive cardiology.
Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of PBJ-Associação Porto Biomedical/Porto Biomedical Society.