PHYSICAL EXERCISE INCREASES SURVIVAL AFTER AN EXPERIMENTAL MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION IN RATS

To directly evaluate the effect of physical exercise on survival, 80 r ats were randomly assigned to either sedentary life (n = 40) or physic al exercise 7 days/week during 6 weeks (n = 40), starting 2 weeks afte r coronary ligation. All animals were followed daily for 183 days. Siz e of myocardial iniarction was determined by planimetry of serial hist ologic sections of the left ventricle. Physical exercise had no effect on survival in the total treatment group. However, rats with large my ocardial infarctions, randomized to physical exercise, had significant ly (p = 0.03) better survival (50%) after 6 months than control rats ( 17%) with large infarctions.