Long-term intra-individual reproducibility of heart rate dynamics during exercise and recovery in the UK Biobank cohort

BACKGROUND The heart rate (HR) response to exercise provides useful information about the autonomic function and has prognostic value, but its reproducibility over a long period of time, a critical requirement for using it as a clinical biomarker, is undetermined. AIM To determine the intra-individual reproducibility of HR dynamics during sub-maximum exercise and one minute recovery. METHODS 1187 individuals from the Cardio physical fitness assessment test of the UK Biobank repeated a standard exercise stress test twice (recall time 34.2 ± 2.8 months) and were prospectively studied. RESULTS 821 individuals complied with inclusion criteria for reproducibility analysis, including peak workload differences between assessments ≤10 W. Intra-individual correlation between HR profile during the first and the second assessment was very high and higher than inter-individual correlation (0.92±0.08 vs 0.87±0.11, p<0.01). Intra-individual correlation of indices describing HR dynamics was: ρ = 0.81 for maximum HR during exercise; ρ = 0.71 for minimum HR during recovery; ρ = 0.70 for HR changes during both exercise and recovery; Intra-individual correlation was higher for these indices of HR dynamics than for resting HR (ρ = 0.64). Bland-Altman plots demonstrated good agreement between HR indices estimated during the first and second assessment. A small but consistent bias was registered for all repeated measurements. The intra-individual consistency of abnormal values was about 60-70%. CONCLUSIONS The HR dynamics during exercise and recovery are reproducible over a period of 3 years, with moderate to strong intra-individual reproducibility of abnormal values.