Coronary disease & ACSCross-sectional study
Associations of cardiorespiratory fitness indicators with brain volumes and cognitive function in patients with coronary artery disease: findings from the Heart–Brain trial
- Cross-sectional study
- baseline data from the Heart-Brain randomised controlled trial
Authors' conclusion
In CAD patients, both maximal and submaximal CRF-indicators were associated with larger brain volumes, with stronger region-specific association with HV, and younger physiological appearance of the brain, while associations with cognitive functions were fewer and weaker.
Study context
- Population
- Stable coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (62.1±6.6 years, 21% female)
- Participants
- 105 patients
- Outcome
- Associations of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) indicators (TTE, VO2peak, VAT, OUES, peak O2-pulse, 60-s HRrec) with brain volumes, hippocampal volume, brainPAD and cognitive function
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Time-to-exhaustion (TTE), VO2peak and oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) positively associated with TBV (βstd)
- 0.15 to 0.19, p<0.05
- TTE, VO2peak and OUES positively associated with hippocampal volume (HV) (βstd)
- 0.23 to 0.36, p<0.05
- Higher OUES, heart rate recovery (HRrec) and O2-pulse associated with lower brainPAD (βstd)
- −0.23 to −0.32, p<0.05
- Higher ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) associated with better working memory (βstd)
- 0.26, p=0.023
- Higher OUES associated with better executive function/attentional control (βstd)
- 0.20, p=0.021
- Hippocampal atrophy more prevalent in lower vs middle/upper VO2peak tertile
- p=0.001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Associations of cardiorespiratory fitness indicators with brain volumes and cognitive function in patients with coronary artery disease: findings from the Heart–Brain trial. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 16 December 2025. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf765
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it