Is supine heart rate a reliable marker of sympathetic tone in the general population and patients with cardiovascular disease?
Supine heart rate has limited utility as a marker of sympathetic tone, particularly in patients with essential hypertension.
These data suggest that the supine heart rate can be regarded as a marker of intersubject differences in sympathetic tone, and that this is the case both in the general population and in those with cardiovascular diseases. Its value for this purpose is limited, however, and the limitations may be more evident in essential hypertension than in conditions such as obesity and heart failure.
Grassi et al. (1998) studied this question.
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