Acute-phase heart rate trajectories and functional outcomes in acute ischemic stroke

The heart rate (HR) trajectory is a dynamic metric that shows how HR changes over time. Previous studies have demonstrated that elevated HR is associated with stroke events. However, little research has been done on the influence of shifting HR throughout the acute period on clinical outcomes. This study aims to investigate the effect of HR trajectories on functional outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). A total of 981 AIS patients were included in the study. A latent mixture model was used to assess HR trends over the first 7 days following disease onset. The patients were divided into four groups based on different HR trajectories: markedly decreasing in 48 h (T1), mildly decreasing in 48 h (T2), sustained moderate in 7 days (T3), and sustained high in 7 days (T4). Poor outcome was defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of ≥3 in 3 months. Logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between different HR trajectories and outcomes. The incidence of poor outcomes was 9.02%, 10.80%, 11.79%, 16.36% in T1 (n = 133), T2 (n = 352), T3 (n = 441), and T4 (n = 55) groups, respectively. Compared with T1 group, T4 group was significantly associated with a higher risk of poor outcome at 3 months (odds ratio = 3.00, 95% confidence interval = 1.06-8.54, p value = .0392). This suggests that in AIS patients, a sustained high HR trajectory is linked to a greater likelihood of poor functional outcome than a markedly decreasing HR trajectory. HR trajectories demonstrate the utility of repeated HR measurements for outcome assessment.