Impact of Exercise on Heart Rate Recovery

Abnormal heart rate recovery (HRR) has been shown to predict mortality. Although small studies have found that HRR can be improved with cardiac rehabilitation, it is unknown whether an improvement would affect mortality. The aim of this study was to determine whether HRR could be improved with cardiac rehabilitation and whether it would be predictive of mortality. We evaluated 1070 consecutive patients who underwent exercise stress testing before and after completion of a phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation program. Heart rate recovery, defined as the difference between heart rate at peak exercise and exactly 1 minute into the recovery period, and mortality were followed up as the primary end points. Of 544 patients with abnormal baseline HRR, 225 (41%) had normal HRR after rehabilitation. Of the entire cohort, 197 patients (18%) died. Among patients with an abnormal HRR at baseline, failure to normalize after rehabilitation predicted a higher mortality (P