Dear Colleagues,

Regular physical activity is an effective measure for maintaining cardiovascular health and for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases. The role of physical activity in both primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular risk factors and in the management of cardiac disease is well established. Exercise training represents a core component for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, according to both European and American guidelines.

However, several aspects linked to exercise training still need to be studied and are the subject of active investigations and debates. This includes the effects of different training protocols and modalities in particular subgroups of patients with cardiovascular diseases (e.g., post-menopausal women, very elderly/frail patients, advanced heart failure, oncology patients undergoing cardiotoxic chemotherapy, etc.).

Studies exploring potential synergic effects produced by combining exercise training with drugs have recently been introduced in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and in particular heart failure. However, further research exploring molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the adaptative changes produced by exercise training on the cardiovascular system, both in healthy subjects and patients with cardiovascular diseases, is needed. Further studies are required to address the association between the levels of circulating biomarkers with vascular and cardiac function in healthy and diseased individuals undergoing exercise training.

This Special Issue of the Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine aims to collect papers reporting the latest findings on these topics from the molecular and cellular level to the assessment of integrated systemic responses (e.g., autonomic nervous system, hormonal, immunological, etc.); to assess the effects of different exercise modalities in subgroups less represented in previous trials; using advanced research methodologies to record physiological adaptations in healthy subjects and cardiac patients; and evaluating the effects of exercise on new potential therapeutic targets in cardiovascular patients (atrial and ventricular longitudinal strain, blood pressure variability, myocardial work, etc.).

Prof. Ferdinando Iellamo and Marco Alfonso Perrone

Guest Editors