Women’s pulse may be a good predictor of their risk of heart attack later in life, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal.

 

The study looked at the records of more than 129,000 postmenopausal women who had no history of heart problems. They had their pulse rates measured at the start of the study. After eight years of follow-up, women with resting heart rates of more than 76 beats per minute were found to be 26 percent more likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease than those with heart rates of 62 beats per minute or lower. And the relation between heart rates and heart attacks was stronger in the younger postmenopausal women.

 

“People have to put in perspective that it is not as much as smoking but it is still a clinically meaningful amount,” said Judith Hsia, a researcher who led the study while at George Washington University in Washington and senior director of clinical research for the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

 

Even after adjusting for factors that might affect heart rate such as depression, cigarettes, alcohol, nervousness and weight, women with higher heart rates were still at greater risk for heart attack during the eight-year follow-up.

 

Overall, women involved in the study suffered 2,281 fatal or non-fatal heart attacks and 1,877 strokes.

 

Dr. Hsia and colleagues concluded “that simple measurement of resting pulse independently predicts coronary events, but not stroke, in post-menopausal women.”