17 Facts About Heart rate

Heart rate is the frequency of the heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute.

Nervous influence over the heart rate is centralized within the two paired cardiovascular centres of the medulla oblongata.

However, as the atrial baroreceptors increase their Heart rate of firing and as they stretch due to the increased blood pressure, the cardiac center responds by increasing sympathetic stimulation and inhibiting parasympathetic stimulation to increase HR.

In regard to the characters present onstage, a reduced startle response has been associated with a passive defense, and the diminished initial heart rate response has been predicted to have a greater tendency to dissociation.

Heart rate can be slowed by altered sodium and potassium levels, hypoxia, acidosis, alkalosis, and hypothermia.

Heart rate is not a stable value and it increases or decreases in response to the body's need in a way to maintain an equilibrium between requirement and delivery of oxygen and nutrients.

The normal SA node firing Heart rate is affected by autonomic nervous system activity: sympathetic stimulation increases and parasympathetic stimulation decreases the firing Heart rate.

Basal or resting heart rate is defined as the heart rate when a person is awake, in a neutrally temperate environment, and has not been subject to any recent exertion or stimulation, such as stress or surprise.

The normal resting heart rate is based on the at-rest firing rate of the heart's sinoatrial node, where the faster pacemaker cells driving the self-generated rhythmic firing and responsible for the heart's autorhythmicity are located.

Maximum heart rate is the age-related highest number of beats per minute of the heart when reaching a point of exhaustion without severe problems through exercise stress.

The fastest human ventricular conduction rate recorded to this day is a conducted tachyarrhythmia with ventricular rate of 480 beats per minute, which is comparable to the heart rate of a mouse.

Heart rate recovery is the reduction in heart rate at peak exercise and the rate as measured after a cool-down period of fixed duration.

Heart rate monitors allow measurements to be taken continuously and can be used during exercise when manual measurement would be difficult or impossible.

An Australian-led international study of patients with cardiovascular disease has shown that heart beat rate is a key indicator for the risk of heart attack.

Those patients whose heart rate was above 70 beats per minute had significantly higher incidence of heart attacks, hospital admissions and the need for surgery.

Higher heart rate is thought to be correlated with an increase in heart attack and about a 46 percent increase in hospitalizations for non-fatal or fatal heart attack.

Heart rate has many advantages as a clinical parameter: It is inexpensive and quick to measure and is easily understandable.