Efeitos de um programa de reabilitação cardíaca em pacientes com doença de chagas

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Chagas Disease (CD) is still a major problem for public health in areas where it is endemic, reaching ten million of individuals. Cardiomyopathy manifestation is directly related to death results, and about half million of Brazilian infected individuals have this clinical manifestation of the disease. OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the effects of a Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (CRP) in infected individuals. METHODS: Was selected 19 infected individuals with average age 52,21 ± 10,97 years old from Centro de Treinamento e Referência em Doenças Infectocontagiosas e Parasitárias (CTR-DIP). Ten individuals presented cardiomyopathy and the nine others did not present cardiomyopathy. The CRP was applied for 90 minutes, three times per week, during 12 weeks, with aerobics, resistance and flexibility exercises. RESULTS: Infected individuals did not reach the training heart rate during the CRP. This result is even more significant in individuals with cardiomyopathy manifestation. After CRP the individuals presented an adjustment based in the variable heart rate. The results demonstrated an improvement of the distance roamed in 6 minute walk test and also in the results of the quality of life questionnaire based on Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ).CONCLUSION: The Cardiac Rehabilitation improves the tolerance to exercise and improves the quality of life, especially in the cardiomyopathy manifestation of the disease.