High resting heart rate a possible risk factor for end-stage renal disease
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Key takeaways:
- High resting heart rate may be an independent risk factor for end-stage renal disease.
- The association was significant, even among participants without established CVD risk factors.
Elevated resting heart rate may be a novel risk factor for end-stage renal disease, independent from other traditional risk factors, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Although a correlation between high resting heart rate and kidney disease has been established, resting heart rate is often considered a disease marker rather than an independent risk factor,” Min-Kuang Tsai, PhD, of the College of Public Health at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, and colleagues wrote. “Although it has been suggested that existing diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, may increase resting heart rate, the relationship remains unclear.”
Image: Adobe Stock
To better understand the relationship between resting heart rate and risk for end-stage renal disease, Tsai and colleagues used data from 476,347 participants who completed the MJ Health screening survey from 1996 to 2017. Resting heart rate was determined using ECG data.
Overall, 32.6% of participants had a resting heart rate of 60 bpm to 69 bpm and 22.2% had a resting heart rate of 80 bpm or more.
Over a median follow-up of 13 years, 2,504 participants developed end-stage renal disease.
A resting heart of 80 bpm or more was most common among participants aged at least 60 years, women, participants with a middle school education or lower and those with BMI of at least 30 kg/m2, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia, according to the study.
Additionally, participants who reported being nondrinkers, nonsmokers or physically inactive also had a higher proportion with elevated resting heart rate.
Participants with a resting heart rate of 80 bpm or more were more likely to have chronic kidney disease, a low estimated glomerular filtration rate and proteinuria compared with those with a resting heart rate of 60 bpm to 69 bpm, the researchers wrote.
Compared with participants with a resting heart rate of 60 bpm to 69 bpm, those with a rate of 80 bpm to 89 BPM had a 24% greater risk for end-stage renal disease (HR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.09-1.42) and those with a heart rate of 90 bpm or more had a 64% greater risk (HR = 1.64; 95% CI, 1.42-1.9).
After excluding participants who reported smoking and having hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia or overweight, the association between elevated resting heart rate and risk for end-stage renal disease remained significant, with an approximately 32% increased risk for every 10 bpm increase above 60 bpm (HR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.1-1.58).
“This study reveals an association between resting heart rate and the risk of end-stage renal disease. The findings indicate that high resting heart rate is an independent risk factor for end-stage renal disease, irrespective of other factors, such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and obesity,” the researchers wrote. “As resting heart rate can be considered a risk marker for end-stage renal disease, interventions to prevent the kidney disease progression should target individuals with high resting heart rate.”
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