Resting Heart Rate Serves as Marker of Underlying Health Issues

Previous studies have found that people with a higher resting heart rate are at an increased risk of death from both cardiovascular and other causes. Richard B. Devereux, from New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College (New York, USA), and colleagues studied data collected on 9,193 men and women enrolled in the LIFE (Losartan Intervention For Endpoint) study, which tested two different treatments (losartan versus atenolol) for hypertension, collecting a number of variables including heart rate.  The team discovered that development of a heart rate of 84 beats per minute or greater that either developed or persisted in patients during the study's average five-year time span was linked to a 55% greater risk of cardiovascular death and a 79% greater risk of death from all causes. Further, even incremental increases in heart rate were associated with increased risk of death. For example, every extra 10 beats per minute higher than a normal resting pulse was associated with a 16% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 25% greater risk of all-cause death.   Explaining that high heart rate can be a marker of increased sympathetic nervous system activity, which is linked to increased heart ischemia, and is also associated with promoting atherosclerosis and susceptibility to arrhythmia, the team urges that: “These findings support the value of serial assessment of [heart rate] for improved risk stratification in hypertensive patients.”