ABNORMAL HEART RATE RECOVERY AS A MARKER FOR AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION
Abstract:
Introduction: Heart rate recovery (HRR) immediately after the exercise stress test is
considered a reflection of the vagal reactivation and a marker for autonomic imbalance. Materials and
methods: We performed a retrospective analysis on 31 patients with abnormal HRR studying the
influence of the most important cardiovascular risk factors: smoking, diabetes, obesity and hypertension
as determinants for autonomic imbalance. Results: There was no association between the major risk
factors with the ΔHR1, which only seems to be correlated with the maximal load of the stress test. For
sub-groups with lower cut-off values for HRR and aged above 75 we obtained several correlations with
smoking status, diastolic blood pressure and obesity. Conclusions: Even though our study group is
small, our findings still raise the question if we should be more strict when considering the HRR
abnormality with a possible cut-off value of 8/9 for each of the minutes of recovery.
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