Resposta circulatória à caminhada de 50 m na unidade coronariana, na síndrome coronariana aguda

background: lack of a standardized and monitored technique to start rehabilitation of patients with acute coronary syndrome (acs) in the coronary care unit. objective: to describe the technique of and circulatory response to a 50-m walk (w50m). methods: experimental cross-sectional study of 65 patients with acs; of these, 36 (54%) with acute myocardial infarction (ami), killip i, 29 (45.2%) with unstable angina (ua), 61.5% males with age of 62.8 ± 12.7 years. walk was started 45±23h after hospitalization. parameters measured: systolic blood pressure (sbp mmhg), diastolic blood pressure (dbp mmhg), heart rate (hr bpm), double product (sbp mmhg x hr bpm), peripheral oxygen saturation (spo2%), walking time, and exercise tolerance by borg scale (bs). measurements were taken while supine, sitting, in orthostasis (phase 1 [gravitational stress]), end of the walk, and after a 5-minute rest (phase 2 [exercise stress]). results: increased hr in response to the sitting gravitational stress (δ=4.18) and with orthostasis (δ=2.69) (p<0.001) was observed. at the end of walk, there was an elevation in sbp (δ=4.84), (p<0.001), hr (δ=4.68), (p<0.001) and dp (δ=344.97), (p=0.004), and a reduction in spo2 (δ=-1.42), (p<0.001), with return to baseline values after 5 minutes. walking time was 2'36"±1'17", and exercise tolerance by bs was good. sbp response > 142 mmhg when sitting was associated with a significant increase (p=0.031) of 11 mmhg at exercise in 13 patients with overweight/obesity and 85% with hypertension. adverse effects occurred in 19 (29.2%) patients and dizziness in 23.1%, which impaired the walk in three of them. conclusion: in this sample, patients did not present severe collateral effects to w50m. 24 hours after a coronary event.