Abstract
Because blood acidosis and arterial oxygenation (PaO2) play key roles in the chemoreflex control of cardiac activity, we hypothesized that heart rate (HR) decay rate after maximal exercise may be linked to post-exercise increase in blood lactate (LA) level and/or the resting PaO2. Twenty healthy subjects and thirty five patients at risks of cardiovascular diseases (20 obeses; 15 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD) performed a maximal cycling exercise. During the recovery period, HR was continuously measured for consecutive 10-s epochs allowing to compute linear or second order polynomial equations and to calculate every minute HR variations compared to peak HR value (ΔHR). PaO2 was measured at rest and post-exercise maximal LA level was determined. A second order polynomial equation (y = a 2 x 2 + b 2 x + c) best fitted the post-exercise HR decay rate. The a 2 and b 2 coefficients and ΔHR did not depend on age, sex, and body mass index. Despite a large scattering of HR decay rate, even present in healthy subjects, a 2 and ΔHR were significantly lower in obeses and COPDs. In the whole population, both a 2 coefficient and ΔHR were negatively correlated with maximal post-exercise LA level. ΔHR was lowered in hypoxemic patients. Thus, the slowest post-exercise HR decay rate was measured in subjects having the highest peak LA increase or hypoxemia. Thus, even in healthy subjects, the post-exercise HR decay rate is lowered in individuals having an accentuated exercise-induced LA increase and/or hypoxemia. The mechanisms of delayed post-exercise HR recovery are only suspected because significant correlations cannot assess cause-to-effect relationships.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cheng YJ, Lauer MS, Earnest CP, Church TS, Kampert JB, Gibbons LW, Blair SN (2003) Heart rate recovery following maximal exercise testing as a predictor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in men with diabetes. Diabetes Care 26:2052–2057
Cole CR, Blackstone EH, Pashkow FJ, Snader CE, Lauer MS (1999) Heart-rate recovery immediately after exercise as a predictor of mortality. N Engl J Med 28:1351–1357
Cole CR, Foody JM, Blackstone EH, Lauer MS (2000) Heart rate recovery after submaximal exercise testing as a predictor of mortality in a cardiovascular healthy cohort. Ann Intern Med 132:552–555
Gass GC, Rogers S, Mitchell R (1981) Blood lactate concentration following maximum exercise in trained subjects. Br J Sports Med 15:172–176
Jammes Y (2000) Effects of hypoxia on skeletal muscle. In: Preedy VR, Peters T (eds) Skeletal muscle: pathology, diagnosis and management of disease. Greenwich Medical Media LTD, London, pp 75–84
Jammes Y, Mathiot MJ, Roll JP, Prefaut C, Berthelin F, Grimaud C, Milic-Emili J (1981) Ventilatory responses to muscular vibrations in healthy man. J Appl Physiol 51:262–269
Javorka M, Zil I, Balharek T, Javorkan K (2002) Heart rate recovery after exercise: relations to heart rate variability and complexity. Braz J Med Biol Res 35:991–1000
Jones NL (1998) Clinical exercise testing. WB Saunders, Philadelphia
Lacasse M, Maltais F, Poirier P, Lacasse Y, Marquis K, Robin J, LeBlanc P (2005) Post-exercise heart rate recovery and mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Respir Med 99:877–886
Lipinski MJ, Vetrovec GW, Froelicher VF (2004) Importance of the first two minutes of heart rate recovery after exercise treadmill testing in predicting mortality and the presence of coronary artery disease in men. Am J Cardiol 93:445–449
Morshedi-Meibodi A, Larson MG, Levy D, O’Donnell CJ, Vasan RS (2002) Heart rate recovery after treadmill exercise testing and risk of cardiovascular disease events (The Framingham Heart Study). Am J Cardiol 90:848–852
Pierpont GL, Stolpman DR, Gornick CC (2000) Heart rate recovery post-exercise as an index of parasympathetic activity. J Auton Nerv Sys 80:169–174
Pierpont GL, Voth EJ (2004) Assessing autonomic function by analysis of heart rate recovery from exercise in healthy subjects. Am J Cardiol 94:64–68
Ponikowski P, Chua TP, Piepoli M, Basaniak W, Anker SD, Szelemej R, Molenda W, Wrabec K, Capucci A, Coats AJ (1998) Ventilatory response to exercise correlated with impaired heart rate variability in patients with chronic congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol 82:338–344
Racine N, Blanchet M, Ducharme A, Marquis J, Boucher JM, Juneau A, White M (2003) Decreased heart rate recovery after exercise in patients with congestive heart failure: effect of beta-blocker therapy. J Card Fail 9:296–302
Rowell LB, O’Leary DS (1990) Reflex control of the circulation during exercise: chemoreflexes and metaboreflexes. J Appl Physiol 69:407–418
Shelter K, Marcus R, Froelicher VF, Vora S, Kalisett D, Prakash M, Do D, Myers J (2001) Heart rate recovery: validation and methodologic issues. J Am Coll Cardiol 38:1980–1987
Steinberg JG, Ba A, Bregeon F, Delliaux S, Jammes Y (2007) Cytokine and oxidative responses to maximal cycling exercise in sedentary subjects. Med Sci Sports Exer 39:964–968
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ba, A., Delliaux, S., Bregeon, F. et al. Post-exercise heart rate recovery in healthy, obeses, and COPD subjects: relationships with blood lactic acid and PaO2 levels. Clin Res Cardiol 98, 52–58 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-008-0723-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-008-0723-0