Prof Ian Graham and Dr Marie Therese Cooney of the Adelaide, Meath and National Childrens Hospital, Dublin (AMNCH) have been researching the significance of an elevated resting heart rate (RHR) as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. With research funding from the Irish Heart Foundation and in conjunction with colleagues from Finland, they have found that RHR is a risk factor for coronary heart disease, separate from the amount of physical activity a person takes. In addition they established that a higher than normal heart rate is a strong risk factor for having a fatal heart attack.  It has also been demonstrated that a RHR of greater than 90 beats per minute at least doubles a person’s risk of developing coronary heart disease.

The researchers, who have published their results in a number of prestigious medical journals, have also shown that adding RHR to existing systems for estimating the future risk of heart disease does not appreciably improve their accuracy. However they demonstrated that including RHR in more simplified risk calculations is useful and may be a cost effective way of assessing a person’s risk.