Abstract
Objective
To analyze a large cohort of patients who underwent exercise testing and also report
sex differences in other exercise heart rate (HR) parameters to determine whether
separate sex-based equations to predict peak HR are indicated.
Patients and Methods
Patients aged 40 to 89 years who performed treadmill exercise tests (Bruce protocol)
from September 21, 1993, to December 20, 2010, were included. Patients with cardiovascular
disease or taking HR-attenuating drugs were excluded. After analyses on preliminary
cohort, peak HR–modifying factors were eliminated to obtain a pure data set. Analysis
of variance was used to test difference in HR responses by sex with age adjustment.
Results
A total of 37,010 patients (67.3% men) were included in the preliminary cohort. Men
had higher peak HR (166±17 vs 163±16 beats/min [bpm]; P<.001), HR reserve (90±19 vs 84±17 bpm; P<.001), and HR recovery (19±8 vs 18±9 bpm; P<.03). Poor exercise capacity, current smoking, diabetes, and obesity had significant
peak HR–lowering effects (all P<.001). In a pure cohort of 19,013 patients (51.3% of full cohort) without these factors,
regression lines approximated more closely the traditional line of 220 – age. For
men, the regression line in our final cohort was peak HR = 220 – 0.95 × age. For women,
both slope (0.79 bpm/y) and intercept (210 bpm) were still substantially different
from those obtained with the traditional formula.
Conclusion
The HR responses to exercise are different in men and women. The HR response of men
was close to that obtained with the traditional formula, but peak HR in women had
a lower intercept and decreased more slowly with age. A separate formula for peak
HR in women appears to be appropriate.
Abbreviations and Acronyms:
bpm (beats/min), ECG (electrocardiogram), FAC (functional aerobic capacity), HR (heart rate)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 28, 2014
Footnotes
Grant Support: The work was supported by the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
