Resting Heart Rate and One Year Mortality Association in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Heart rate is one of widely investigated new risk factors for the progression of coronary heart disease. Aim of this study was to assess association between admission resting heart rate (HR) and one-year survival in patients with coronary heart disease in dependence on gender, age and clinical expression of coronary heart disease (acute or chronic ischemic heart disease). Methods. We randomly selected 3268 patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), unstable or stable angina admitted to Kaunas University Clinic of Cardiology in 2005. In 1 year we collected data on outcomes of 1824 patients. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS and MS Office Excel statistical programs. Results. One-year mortality risk was significantly increased in patients with HR >= 67 bpm (p=0.017). Significant interaction was found between resting HR, clinical expression of coronary heart disease, and age. Mortality was significantly increased in patients with HR>75 bpm and chronic coronary heart disease (p=0.015) and with HR >71 bpm in patients with acute coronary syndrome (p=0.016). HR >= 72 bpm more than doubled risk of death during 1 year in patients younger than 60 and older than 75 years (p=0.047).