Resting Heart Rate and Cardiovascular Events: Risk Factor or Risk Marker?

Abstract

Over the last 25 years numerous reports demonstrated a significant association between resting heart rate and allcause mortality in addition to cardiovascular mortality. Observational studies, such as the Framingham Heart study or the French IPC study showed that a high resting heart rate is associated with an increase in cardiovascular mortality in the general population and this has also been demonstrated in hypertension, acute myocardial infarction and heart failure or left ventricular dysfunction.