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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Signal Acquisition, Score Interpretation, and Economics of a Non-Invasive Point-of-Care Test for Coronary Artery Disease
Published on: August 9, 2024
Resting heart rate as a low tech predictor of coronary events in women: prospective cohort study
Judith Hsia1, Joseph C Larson, Judith K Ockene
1George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA. judith.hsia@astrazeneca.com
Objective:
To evaluate resting heart rate as an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk in women.
Design:
Prospective cohort study.
Setting:
The Women's Health Initiative was undertaken at 40 research clinics in the United States.
Participants:
129 135 postmenopausal women.
Main Outcome Measure:
Clinical cardiovascular events.
Results:
During a mean of 7.8 (SD 1.6) years of follow up, 2281 women were identified with myocardial infarction or coronary death and 1877 with stroke. We evaluated associations between resting heart rate and cardiovascular events in Cox regression models adjusted for multiple covariates. Higher resting heart rate was independently associated with coronary events (hazard ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.42 for highest [>76 beats per minute] v lowest quintile [
Conclusion:
Resting heart rate, a low tech and inexpensive measure of autonomic tone, independently predicts myocardial infarction or coronary death, but not stroke, in women.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00000611.
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