Abstract
Objective: The utility of a multi-disciplinary work sheet for the Nichidai acute heart failure (AHF) program was investigated in the AHF hospitalized patients. Methods and Results: The subjects were 45 patients with clinical diagnoses of AHF, who were admitted to Nihon University Itabashi Hospital from February 2011 to October 2011. Standard rehabilitation was performed in 25 patients (control group) and the remaining 20 (work sheet group) underwent rehabilitation according to the Nichidai AHF program multi-disciplinary work sheet. There were no differences in the baseline characteristics between the two groups. The start of each rehabilitation phase was significantly earlier (5.3±2.0 days vs 15.7±2.3 days for 50 m, 6.2±1.7 days vs 16.8±1.6 days for 100 m, and 8.0±1.8 days vs 24.2±1.8 days for 200 m walk training, P<0.05 for each), and hospital stay shorter for the rehabilitation in the work sheet group than the control group (20.6±2.2 days vs 32.0±3.6 days, P<0.05). Although no adverse events were observed in either group, the 6-min walk distance slightly improved in the work sheet group. Conclusions: The multi-disciplinary work sheet helped share patient information, and shortened the hospitalization. Sharing patient information and a multi-disciplinary comprehensive management program are important for safely accomplishing early ambulation for the patients. Our data will drive the efforts to perform further studies on the impact of early cardiac rehabilitation for AHF patients.
