Heart-Rate Profile during Exercise as a Predictor of Sudden Death

In asymptomatic French men, the heart-rate profile during exercise testing was found to be predictive of the subsequent risk of sudden death. Specifically, a higher resting heart rate, a lower increase in the heart rate during exercise, and a slower decline in heart rate during recovery from exercise were associated with an increased risk of sudden death. The authors speculate that the heart-rate profile of high-risk patients may be due to an underlying autonomic imbalance. In asymptomatic French men, the heart-rate profile during exercise testing was found to be predictive of the subsequent risk of sudden death. Sudden and unexpected death from cardiac causes is an important health burden in the Western world. Its effect is accentuated by the fact that sudden death is often the first manifestation of cardiovascular disease. 1 , 2 Thus, identification of apparently normal persons who actually are at higher-than-average risk for sudden death is a major challenge. The past two decades have witnessed growing evidence (both experimental and clinical) of a tight relationship between abnormalities in the autonomic nervous system and death from myocardial infarction, both sudden and not sudden. 3 – 6 Autonomic imbalance, a term used to indicate a relative or absolute decrease . . .