Objectives: Resting heart rate has been increasingly identified as a marker of cardiovascular risk and has been extensively studied as a predictor of coronary artery disease progression. In peripheral artery disease, the prognostic impact of resting heart rate remains elusive.
Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing invasive peripheral procedures were included. Data included resting heart rate determination by averaging manual radial pulse palpation measurements taken 24 h before and after an invasive peripheral procedure.
Results: A total of 1720 patients were included (mean age 70±11 years, 38% were female, 39% had critical limb ischemia). During a median follow-up of 729 days, 364 (21.2%) patients died. Resting heart rate emerged as an independent predictor of mortality, even after adjusting for clinical characteristics, peripheral artery disease manifestation and anatomic extent, traditional risk factors, co-morbidities, and disease-modifying therapies: hazard ratio for heart rate >75 bpm was 1.010 (95% confidence interval 1.001-1.109), with each bpm increase in resting heart rate conferring a 1.1% increase in the risk of all-cause mortality (95% confidence interval 0.1-10.9%, adjusted p = 0.030).
Conclusions: Resting heart rate is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with peripheral artery disease; our findings extend heart rate as a possible marker of prognosis to non-coronary atherosclerotic vascular disease.
Keywords: Heart rate; PTA; peripheral artery disease; vascular disease.