J Korean Med Sci.  2006 Aug;21(4):621-626. 10.3346/jkms.2006.21.4.621.

Metabolic Syndrome Is Associated with Delayed Heart Rate Recovery after Exercise

• Sung J
• Choi YH
• Park JB

• KMID: 2157811
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2006.21.4.621

Abstract

Heart rate (HR) recovery after exercise is a function of vagal reactivation, and its impairment is a predictor of overall mortality and adverse cardiovascular events. While metabolic syndrome is associated with sympathetic overactivity, little is known about the relationship between metabolic syndrome and HR recovery. A symptom-limited exercise stress test in healthy subjects (n=1, 434) was used to evaluate HR recovery. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP-III) criteria. Seventeen percent of subjects had > or =3 criteria for metabolic syndrome. HR recovery was lower in men than women and in smokers than nonsmokers. The subject with metabolic syndrome (vs. without) showed lower HR recovery (10.3+/-11.6 vs. 13.6+/-9.7 per minute) and higher resting HR (64.3+/-10.3 vs. 61.6+/-9.1 per minute). HR recovery correlated inversely to age (r=-0.25, p<0.0001), but not to resting HR or maximal oxygen uptake. Delayed HR recovery was associated with metabolic syndrome after an adjustment for age, sex, resting HR and smoking (p<0.01). Metabolic syn-drome is associated with impaired vagal reactivation. Adverse cardiovascular out-comes associated with metabolic syndrome may be mediated by the failure of vagal reactivation in addition to sympathetic overactivity.

Keyword

Heart Rate; Heart Rate Recovery; Metabolic Syndrome X; Vagal Reactivation

MeSH Terms

Walking/physiology
Smoking
Sex Factors
Oxygen Consumption/physiology
Middle Aged
Metabolic Syndrome X/blood/*physiopathology
Male
Humans
Heart Rate/*physiology
Female
Fasting/blood
Exercise/*physiology
Cholesterol, HDL/blood
Body Mass Index
Blood Pressure/physiology
Blood Glucose/metabolism
Analysis of Variance
Age Factors
Adult

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Relationship between HR recovery, and gender, current smoking status, and the presence of metabolic syndrome. p<0.001 between each group.

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  Fig. 2 Correlation between HR recovery and individual parameters associated with metabolic syndrome.

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  Fig. 3 Delayed HR recovery and the number of factors indicating metabolic syndrome (mean-SD).*p<0.05 for post-hoc multiple comparison test, p value for overall difference between the group was <0.0001.

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