Heart Care Info - Heart Disease Prevention & Treatment

Resting heart rate, mortality and future coronary heart disease in the elderly: the 3C study

C Legeai, X Jouven, M Tafflet... - European Journal of ..., 2011 - ... Resting heart rate, mortality and future coronary heart disease in the elderly: the 3C study. ... media thickness as previously described. 23. Assessment of resting heart rate and blood pressure. RHR and brachial blood pressure ...

Methods: Data derived from the Three-City Study, a French multicentre prospective study including 9294 community-dwelling elderly subjects aged ≥65 years at baseline examination between 1999 and 2001. The study population comprised 7147 participants (61% women) who were free of a pacemaker or any cardiac arrhythmias at baseline. RHR was measured twice at baseline in a seated position using an electronic tensiometer. Participants were then followed up bi-annually for vascular morbidity and mortality over 6 years. CHD events and cardiovascular death were adjudicated by an independent expert committee.

Results: After 6 years of follow-up, 615 subjects died including 17.9% from cardiovascular causes. Subjects from the top quintile of RHR (>79 bpm) had respectively a 74% (95% CI, 1.3–2.3), a 87% (95% CI: 0.98–3.6, p = 0.06) and a 72% (95% CI, 1.3–2.3) increased risk of total, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality compared to those from the lowest quintile (0.10). Conversely, RHR was not predictive of incident CHD (n = 228 events; top vs lowest quintile: HR: 1.0; 95% CI: 0.6–1.5).