Post-exercise Heart Rate Recovery in Patients with Chronic Respiratory Disease

ABSTRACT

Chronic respiratory diseases are frequently associated with cardiac autonomic dysfunction and this can be evaluated by measuring post-exercise heart rate recovery (HRR). There is evidence that the HRR calculated after one minute of rest following a Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) can predict mortality and acute exacerbations in patients with chronic respiratory diseases. The purpose of this study is to compare the heart rate recovery after finishing a Three-Minute Step Test (3MST) in chronic respiratory patients with that obtained after the 6MWT. The 3MST was performed without difficulty in a small doctor's office and all the patients were able to finish it. Applying the Pearson Correlation Index, the result was 0.84 when comparing the HRR one minute after stopping in both tests, showing a good correlation between them. In the Bland-Altman Plot, we can see that the results are within the confidence limits and show concordance despite being a small sample of patients. The 3MST is easily done in a small doctor's office. The results of the HRR after the 3MST are comparable to those obtained after finishing the 6MWT.