Abstract
Objective
To assess outcomes at 12 and 24 months after participation in a multidisciplinary
cardiac rehabilitation program plus usual care compared with usual care alone for
patients treated for atrial fibrillation with catheter ablation.
Design
Long-term follow-up on the randomized CopenHeartRFA trial.
Setting
Patients were enrolled and outcome assessed at the hospital and the intervention were
carried out at the hospital or at local rehabilitation centers.
Participants
Patients (N=210) treated for atrial fibrillation with catheter ablation included in
the CopenHeartRFA trial.
Interventions
A 6-month cardiac rehabilitation program consisting of physical exercise and psychoeducational
consultations plus usual care or usual care alone.
Main Outcome Measures
Physical capacity was measured by peak oxygen uptake (Vo2peak) at 12 months, and patient-reported outcomes on perceived health, anxiety, and
depression were collected by validated questionnaires at 12 and 24 months. Information
on hospital admissions and mortality was collected through national registers up to
24 months.
Results
Mean Vo2peak was higher at 12 months in the cardiac rehabilitation group (cardiac rehabilitation
group: 25.82 mL/kg/min vs usual care group, 22.43 mL/kg/min, P=.003). A lower proportion of patients had high levels of anxiety at 24 months in
the cardiac rehabilitation group compared to usual care (12% vs 24%, P=.004). There was no difference in mortality or hospital admissions at 24 months between
groups.
Conclusions
This long-term follow-up of a comprehensive multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation
program for patients treated for atrial fibrillation with catheter ablation found
sustained improvements with respect to physical capacity and anxiety compared to usual
care but no difference on mortality or hospital admission.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
AF (atrial fibrillation), AFEQT (Atrial Fibrillation Effect on QualiTy of life), CPET (cardiopulmonary exercise testing), HADS-A (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety), HADS-D (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Depression), HRQOL (health-related quality of life), MCS (Mental Component Scale), RFA (radiofrequency catheter ablation), SF-36 (Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey), Vo2peak (peak oxygen uptake)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 01, 2020
Footnotes
Supported by the Danish Strategic Research Council (journal no.: 10-092790); the Heart Centre Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet; Metropolitan University College (now University College Copenhagen); the Lundbeck Foundation (journal no.: F-22911-02); the Danish Heart Foundation (journal no.: 16-R107-A6736); The Danish Health Foundation (journal no.: 15-B-0114); and Aase og Ejnar Danielsens Foundation (journal no.: 10-001908).
Disclosures: Jesper Hastrup Svendsen received grants, personal fees, and other support from Medtronic and grants from Gilead, outside the submitted work. The other authors have nothing to disclose.
Clinical Trial Registration No.: NCT01523145.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
