Study prompts calls for routine heart rate checks

HEART rate, often overlooked in assessing patients, is a significant risk factor for heart disease, a groundbreaking study reveals, prompting calls by professionals for it to be routinely checked.

Despite many advances, coronary artery disease accounts for about 5,000 deaths in Ireland each year. The study, published in the Lancet, shows for the first time there is a clear threshold heart rate value above which patients are at risk (70 beats per minutes).

The European Society of Cardiology, the largest organisation representing cardiology professionals in Europe, is recommending that heart rate is routinely checked.