Objective: Assuming that cardiac rehabilitation and exercise significantly reduces mortality rate in coronary artery disease and has an important role in secondary prevention, the purpose of this study is to assess the effects of strength training and cardiac rehabilitation programs on biomechanical parameters of blood flow velocity and blood flow rate and these relationships with the brachial and femoral artery stiffness index in patients with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) in past 2 months.

Materials & Methods: This study was performed on 40 women and men, with 50 to 80 years old who were underwent CABG. Training group had 18 patients who participated in strength training and rehabilitation program for two months. There were three sessions in a week and patients trained according to determined level of each patient's functional capacity. The control group had 14 patients who did not participate in the training program. Variables blood flow velocity and arterial diameter in systole and diastole phases measured with Doppler ultrasound and the mean velocity of blood flow rate in arteries and arterial stiffness index was calculated for both groups. For statistical analysis dependent t-test was used in significance level of 0. 05 and Pearson correlation coefficient was applied for measuring the relation between parameters in significant level of 0.01.

Results: The significant changes in velocity, blood flow rate and decreased arterial stiffness index in arteries were observed in the training group.

Conclusion: According to our results, we can say strength training and cardiac rehabilitation programs can be effective in improvement of peripheral vascular and bleeding tendency in these patients.