Key result
Patients with systemic sclerosis had significantly lower first-minute heart rate recovery compared to healthy controls (21.8 vs. 27.7 bpm, p=0.001), suggesting cardiac autonomic involvement.
Why the study?
Does systemic sclerosis impair exercise heart rate recovery indices compared to healthy controls?
Case-Control (n=70)
Does systemic sclerosis impair exercise heart rate recovery indices compared to healthy controls?
Patients with systemic sclerosis exhibit impaired heart rate recovery after exercise, suggesting subclinical cardiac autonomic dysfunction.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May indicate subclinical autonomic dysfunction in systemic sclerosis but should not change practice; hypothesis-generating for prognostic validation.
OBJECTIVE: To assess exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) indices in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) for an assessment of their cardiac autonomic function. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty-five patients with diffuse or limited SSc and 35 healthy controls were enrolled. All subjects underwent exercise testing and transthoracic echocardiography. The HRR indices were calculated by subtracting the first- (HRR1), second- (HRR2) and third-minute (HRR3) heart rates from the maximal heart rate. RESULTS: The SSc and control groups were similar in age (45.2 ± 11.6 vs. 43.9 ± 10.0 years), had identical gender ratios (31 female/4 male in both groups) and similar left ventricular ejection fraction (66.5 ± 5.1 vs. 67.7 ± 5.9%). The mean HRR1 (21.8 ± 4.4 vs. 27.7 ± 4.3 bpm, p = 0.001), HRR2 (43.8 ± 6.3 vs. 47.6 ± 4.4 bpm, p = 0.004) and HRR3 (58.8 ± 10.3 vs. 63.6 ± 7.3 bpm, p = 0.031) values were significantly lower in the SSc group than in the healthy controls. HRR indices were similar in the limited and diffuse SSc subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: The patients with SSc had lower HRR indices than normal subjects. Cardiac autonomic functions might be involved in SSc, even in patients without cardiac symptoms.
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Karakulak et al. (2014) conducted a case-control in Systemic sclerosis (n=70). Systemic sclerosis vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on First-minute heart rate recovery (HRR1) (p=0.001). Patients with systemic sclerosis had significantly lower first-minute heart rate recovery compared to healthy controls (21.8 vs. 27.7 bpm, p=0.001), suggesting cardiac autonomic involvement.
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