Post-Exercise Ultra-Short Term Heart Rate Recovery in Women with Stratified Cardiovascular Risks

Abstract

Ultra-short term heart rate recovery (UST-HRR) after exercise discriminates healthy women with variable levels of fitness yet its use as a clinical marker has not been evaluated in population with different risk stratification categories for cardiovascular disease. PURPOSE: To assess UST-HRR after submaximal exercise in women with low, moderate or high risk of an acute cardiovascular event. METHODS: Exercise testing was performed in seventeen women (n = 17) as a part of general medical examination prior to their participation in a medically supervised exercise program. Participants were screened and stratified for health risk categories according to the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines. UST-HRR was monitored immediatelly after exercise, with area under the curve (AUC) for UST-HRR identified and calculated for each risk group. RESULTS: UST-HRR drop at 10 s post-exercise was significanly different among groups (P = 0.04), with recovery in women with high risk of an acute cardiovascular event was slower as compared to their medium-risk counterparts (-1.54 ± 1.6 vs. 0.6 ± 0.7; P = 0.02). AUC analysis for UST-HRR revealed similar results between groups during the 60 s post-exercise (P = 0.60). CONCLUSION: It seems that individuals with high risk for heart disease have blunted post-exercise heart rate dynamics immediately after exercise. This project was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (Grant No. 175037), and the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad (2015 Annual Award).Keywords: Cardiovascular event; Submaximal exercise; Heart rate; Recovery