Assessment of the chronotropic response at the anaerobic threshold: an objective measure of chronotropic function

The evaluation of the heart rate response to exercise is important for the diagnosis of chronotropic incompetence and the assessment of a rate responsive algorithm of sensor-controlled pacemakers. The aim of the present study was to examine a classification of the chronotropic response at an individually moderate exercise level. Sixteen pacemaker patients (patient group, age 62.9 +/- 7.6 years) with sick sinus syndrome and 15 age-matched healthy subjects (control group, age 57.6 +/- 9.4 years) underwent a maximum cardiopulmonary exercise test on a treadmill after a protocol with individually selected incremental steps. To analyze the patients' intrinsic heart rate response, the rate responsive mode of the pacemaker was switched off. Chronotropic incompetence was diagnosed in eight patients whose maximal heart rate was < 80% of the age-predicted heart rate. The heart rate at the anaerobic threshold was significantly lower in the chronotropically incompetent subgroup than in the chronotropically competent patients and the healthy subjects (85.9 +/- 6.6 beats/min vs 100.3 +/- 9.9 beats/min and 112.9 +/- 11.7 beats/min, respectively). The chronotropic slope of the heart rate reserve as a function of the metabolic reserve was significantly higher in the control group than in the patient groups with either mild or severe chronotropic incompetence (0.94 +/- 0.17 vs 0.64 +/- 0.08 and 0.43 +/- 0.14, respectively). Furthermore, the chronotropically incompetent response could be divided into a linear type with and without a threshold, an exponential, and a logarithmic type. The anaerobic threshold was an objectively detectable breakpoint at an individually moderate exercise level that could be used for characterization of chronotropic function. At the anaerobic threshold, a physiological heart rate response was about 220--age--50 beats/min. A deviation of more than 10 beats/min below this physiological value characterized chronotropic incompetence.