BACKGROUND: Aerobic exercise is a popular and effective way of fitness. All kinds of changes occur in the human system, especially the changes in the cardiovascular system. Enhancing the cardiovascular system functions is the most important role in the aerobic exercise. OBJECTIVE: To sum up effects of aerobic exercise on blood indicators, cardio-vascular function. RETRIEVAL STRATEGY: A computer-based search was conducted in Pubmed for literatures related to aerobic exercise and cardiovascular system published between January 1998 and December 2006 with the key words of "aerobic exercise, cardiovascular" in English. Simultaneously, China Journal Full-text Database was looked for relevant articles published from January 2001 to December 2006 with the same key words in Chinese. The data were selected firstly. Inclusive criteria: ①the influence of aerobic exercise on cardiovascular function, ②influence of aerobic exercise on blood indexes. The exclusive criterion for deletion was the repetition of the same research. There were 81 literatures in accordance with the above-mentioned criteria. LITERATURE EVALUATION: 51 papers of repetitive research were excluded, 30 of them were accorded with the inclusive criteria and were included. DATA SYNTHESIS: Aerobic exercise plays the most important role in fitness. Enhancing the cardiovascular system functions is the most important role in the aerobic exercise. Epidemiological studies and experimental studies have indicated that aerobic exercise not only can increase energy consumption, improve vitality lipoprotein and lower blood lipid content, but also can reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension and decrease the incidence of arteriosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, and can effectively enhance cardiac function. CONCLUSION: Appropriate aerobic exercise can lead to the enhancements of cardiac function and vascular function, and plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.