The assessment of effectiveness of physical rehabilitation following surgical revascularization of myocardium with the use of transoesophageal stress echocardiography

The physical rehabilitation following endoprosthetic treatment and coronary artery bypass surgery is an important indispensable component of combined remedial therapy. However, the assessment of its efficacy encounters difficulties because the examination by the traditional electrocardiographic technique fails to provide detailed information about inotropic reserves of the myocardium before and after the treatment. We propose to use transoesophageal stress echocardiography for the thorough evaluation of this parameter. This approach allows the optimal quality of the images to be achieved and accounts for their maximum diagnostic accuracy. The study involving 35 patients at the mean age of 51.3 +- 7.8 years has demonstrated that those given comprehensive physical rehabilitation (n = 12) had the highest left ventricular ejection fraction (mean 90 +- 2.5%) and pressure/volume ratio at the peak of physical exercises. The patients who passed though a partial course of physical rehabilitation (n = 15) showed much worse characteristics of the systolic function. They were even lower in the control group of patients (n = 8) who refused to undergo the course of spa and resort-based rehabilitative therapy (mean 80 ± 5%).

coronary heart diseases, coronary artery bypass surgery, physical rehabilitation, transoesophageal stress echocardiography