A cardiac rehabilitation exercise program potentially inhibits progressive inflammation in patients with severe Chagas cardiomyopathy: A pilot single‑arm clinical trial

Background: cardiac rehabilitation exerts anti-inflammatory effect on several cardiovascular diseases; however, these effects were not described for chagas cardiomyopathy, which is associated with pro-inflammatory imbalance. materials and methods: ten patients with severe chagas cardiomyopathy performed 8 months of exercise training in a cardiac rehabilitation program. interleukin-1 beta (il-1ß), il-8, il-10, interferon gamma (if-ϒ), tumor necrosis factor alpha (tnf-α), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (mcp-1) serum levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at baseline, 4, and 8 months. the influence of exercise on cytokine levels was evaluated using the one-way analysis of variance for repeated measurements, with bonferroni posttest for multiple comparisons. results: levels of pro-inflammatory (tnf-α, il- 1ß, il-8, if-ϒ, and (mcp-1) and anti-inflammatory (il-10) cytokines did not vary significantly during the observation period. conclusion: exercise may benefit patients with severe chagas cardiomyopathy by curbing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in this disease characterized by a continuous state of inflammation.