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June 12, 2026European Journal of Preventive CardiologyOpen Access

Effects of HIIT + resistance training and HIIT alone on blood biomarkers related to cardiac and brain health in patients with coronary artery disease: preliminary results from the HEART-BRAIN RCT

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Key result

In patients with coronary artery disease, 12 weeks of HIIT with or without resistance training did not significantly alter cardiac, vascular, or neurotrophic blood biomarkers (all p>0.05).

Why the study?

Does HIIT combined with resistance training or HIIT alone improve cardiac, vascular, and neurotrophic blood biomarkers compared to usual care in patients with coronary artery disease?

Population

105 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), mean age 62±7 years, 21% female.

Comparison

High-intensity interval training combined with… vs Usual care.

Design

RCT, randomized controlled trial, single-blind

Follow-up

12 weeks

Authors

SAS Vidal AlmelaJSJ A Sanchez-MartinezMOM Olvera-Rojas

Discussion

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Overview

No significant biomarker differences with added resistance training; leaves open modest NT-proBNP benefits for further study in CAD.

Key Points

  • To compare the effects of HIIT combined with resistance training and HIIT alone on blood biomarkers related to cardiovascular and brain health in patients with coronary artery disease.
  • Single-blind randomized controlled trial with 105 participants (21% female).
  • 12-week interventions consisting of 45-minute supervised exercise sessions, 3 days/week.
  • Serum biomarkers assessed at baseline and after 12 weeks using constrained linear mixed-effects models.
  • No statistically significant time × group interaction was observed for any biomarker (all p>0.05).
  • HIIT+RT group showed a greater decrease in NT-proBNP z-scores compared to HIIT alone (-0.32 [-0.72; 0.08]) and usual care (-0.26 [-0.67; 0.14]).
  • After 12 weeks, HIIT+RT achieved a clinically meaningful % change in NT-proBNP that was 25 percentage points lower than HIIT and 33 percentage points lower than usual care.

Study Design

Type

RCT (n=105)

Blinding

Single-blind

Structured PICO

Does HIIT combined with resistance training or HIIT alone improve cardiac, vascular, and neurotrophic blood biomarkers compared to usual care in patients with coronary artery disease?

P
Population
105 patients with coronary artery disease (mean age 62 years, 21% female) randomized to a 12-week exercise intervention or usual care.
I
Intervention
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with resistance training (HIIT+RT) or HIIT alone (45-minute supervised exercise sessions, 3 days/week for 12 weeks).
C
Comparator
Usual care.
O
Outcome
Changes in serum biomarkers (BDNF, β-CrossLaps, GDF-15, hs-cTnT, NT-proBNP, PIGF, TP1NP, sFLT1) from baseline to 12 weeks.surrogate

Main Result

p-value: p=>0.05

In patients with CAD, 12 weeks of HIIT with or without resistance training did not significantly alter cardiac, vascular, or neurotrophic biomarkers compared to usual care, though trends suggested potential NT-proBNP reduction with combined training.

Limitations

  • Participants already had healthy biomarker ranges at baseline, possibly limiting the ability to detect significant changes.
  • Healthy biomarker ranges already noted at baseline

Cite This Study

Almela et al. (2026) conducted an RCT in Coronary artery disease (CAD) (n=105). High-intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with resistance training (HIIT+RT) or HIIT alone vs. Usual care was evaluated on Changes in cardiac, vascular and neurotrophic blood biomarkers (time × group interaction) (p=>0.05). In patients with coronary artery disease, 12 weeks of HIIT with or without resistance training did not significantly alter cardiac, vascular, or neurotrophic blood biomarkers (all p>0.05).

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a2bd11d6550ea4541ffe8eahttps://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwag249.197
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Acute and chronic effects of aerobic exercise on serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients with coronary artery disease2026
  2. 2Time-Course of Physiological Adaptations to High-Intensity Interval Training-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation After Myocardial Infarction2026
  3. 3Real-Time HIIT Response in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: A CERT-Based Report from the Heart-Brain Randomized Controlled Trial2025 · 1 citations
  4. 4Pushing the limits: high-intensity training in cardiac rehabilitation - a single-center experience2026
  5. 5Circulating Biomarkers as Predictors of Improvement in Physical Function in Hospitalized Older Adults With Geriatric Syndromes: Findings From the REHAB-HF Trial2026