Heart rate and late mortality in cardiac transplant recipients.
There are currently 104 patients at this centre who have survived at least 3 months after orthotopic cardiac transplantation. Seven of these long-term survivors have subsequently died and in three cases death was sudden and unexpected. All three of these patients had been noted to have inappropriately high resting heart rates (> 130 b.min-1). The rhythm was sinus tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia or both intermittently. The heart rates of all 104 long-term survivors were recorded from ECGs taken at routine follow-up visits every 3 months for one year and annually thereafter. The overall mean heart rate was 100 +/- 13.2 b.min-1. Four patients, including the three identified above, had mean heart rates greater than the 95th centile. The mortality rate in this group is 75%. Four deaths have occurred in the remaining 100 patients (P < 0.001). In our series, an inappropriately high resting heart rate due to sinus tachycardia or supraventricular tachycardia in long-term survivors of cardiac transplantation, is an adverse prognostic sign.
Scott
C D
CD
Cardiothoracic Centre, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
McComb
J M
JM
Dark
J H
JH
D000328:Adult; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013616:Tachycardia, Sinus / Q000401:mortality*; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000401:mortality*; D013997:Time Factors