What Is Chronotropic Response?

An attenuated heart rate response to exercise, known as chronotropic incompetence, has been shown to be predictive of mortality and coronary heart disease risk, even after adjusting for age, physical fitness, standard cardiovascular risk factors, and ST-segment changes with exercise.

What is normal chronotropic response?

In a group of 410 healthy adults Wilkoff and Miller reported 95% limits of normality for chronotropic index to be 0.8–1.3. Based on this finding, chronotropic incompetence is usually defined as failure to achieve a chronotropic index of 0.8 or higher (i.e., falling below 97.5 percent of healthy adults).

What is abnormal chronotropic response?

Chronotropic incompetence (CI), broadly defined as the inability of the heart to increase its rate commensurate with increased activity or demand, is common in patients with cardiovascular disease, produces exercise intolerance which impairs quality-of-life, and is an independent predictor of major adverse ...