Authors

• Viktor Ivaniš — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-3349-0395
• Kristina Skroče — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-0379-5235
• Dijana Travica Samsa — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-6238-3738
• Koraljka Knežević — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-9353-0542
• Irena Kužet Mioković — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-4990-6201
• Marina Njegovan — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-2710-4769
• Danijel Premuš — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0002-6806-2027
• Viktor Peršić — Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation of the Heart and Lung Diseases and Rheumatism “Thalassotherapia Opatija”, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-4473-5431

Keywords

cardiorespiratory fitness, exercise, health, myocardial infarction

DOI

Full Text

**Introduction**: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is increasingly popular exercise training intervention and meta-analyses have suggested HIIT to be more effective at improving cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and reducing adiposity compared to moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) in patients after myocardial infarction. (1) However, the impact of HIIT training on cardiac biomarkers is still controversial. Therefore, the aim was to longitudinally follow up on the main blood markers during 12 weeks of HIIT training in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients. **Patients and Methods**: 16 STEMI and NSTEMI (age 58 ± 10 years; height 177 ± 9 cm; weight 86.8 ± 15.4 kg; VO2max 19 ± 5.3 ml min-1kg-1) underwent 12 weeks of supervised cycling HIIT (4x4 min at 85-95% of HRmax) 3 times per week. Lipid profile as well as cardiac biomarkers (C-reactive protein, hs-Troponin, NT-proBNP) were assessed prior, at week 4 and 8 and post 12-week of proposed training programme. **Results**: Blood triglycerides decreased significantly by 22% across the group (1.77 ± 0.97 vs 1.38 ± 0.75 mmol/L, P=.003) after 12 weeks of training. HDL increased by 3.6% whole LDL cholesterol decreased by -2.36% across the group although not in a significant way. CRP decreased by 43.4% (1.99 ± 1.51 mg/dL vs 1.11 ± 1.04 md/dL) and NT-proBNP did not change significantly although a drop of 3.15% was measured. **Conclusion**: HIIT did not have a negative effect on the NT-proBNP levels while it improved the lipid profile and C-reactive protein levels. Prescribing safe and progressive exercise programs after CR is critical to improve these parameters that represent prognostic indicators for CVD patients. HIIT has shown to be a type of safe exercise intervention in this group of patients that positively improves blood biomarkers already after 4 weeks of HIIT.

Literature

1. Wewege MA, Ahn D, Yu J, Liou K, Keech A. High-Intensity Interval Training for Patients With Cardiovascular Disease-Is It Safe? A Systematic Review. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018 November 6;7(21):e009305. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.118.009305