Heart rate recovery after exercise in chronic heart failure: role of vital exhaustion and type D personality.

OBJECTIVE Vital exhaustion and type D personality previously predicted mortality and cardiac events in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Reduced heart rate recovery (HRR) also predicts morbidity and mortality in CHF. We hypothesized that elevated levels of vital exhaustion and type D personality are both associated with decreased HRR. METHODS Fifty-one patients with CHF (mean age 58+/-12 years, 82% men) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < or = 40% underwent standard exercise testing before receiving outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. They completed the 9-item short form of the Maastricht Vital Exhaustion Questionnaire and the 14-item type D questionnaire asking about negative affectivity and social inhibition. HRR was calculated as the difference between heart rate at the end of exercise and 1 min after abrupt cessation of exercise (HRR-1). Regression analyses were adjusted for gender, age, LVEF, and maximum exercise capacity. RESULTS Vital exhaustion explained 8.4% of the variance in continuous HRR-1 (p=0.045). For each point increase on the vital exhaustion score (range 0-18) there was a mean+/-SEM decrease of 0.54+/-0.26 bpm in HRR-1. Type D personality showed a trend toward statistical significance for being associated with lower levels of HRR-1 explaining 6.5% of the variance (p<0.08). The likelihood of having HRR-1 < or = 18 bpm was significantly higher in patients with type D personality than in those without (odds ratio=7.62, 95% CI 1.50-38.80). CONCLUSIONS Elevated levels of vital exhaustion and type D personality were both independently associated with reduced HRR-1. The findings provide a hitherto not explored psychobiological explanation for poor cardiac outcome in patients with CHF.