Value of heart rate recovery in female patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension due to systemic lupus erythematosus

OBJECTIVE This study intended to explore the relation between heart rate recovery at 1 minutes (HRR1) during the recovery phase of cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) and exercise capacity in female systemic lupus erythematosus associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (SLE-PAH) patients. METHODS Twenty-one female SLE-PAH patients underwent right heart catheterization (RHC), pulmonary function test (PFT) and CPET. Forty-two healthy subjects matched with SLE-PAH patients in age, sex and BMI were recruited as a control group. The correlations between HRR1 with clinical and CPET parameters were performed. RESULTS Peak HR, ΔHR, HRR1, Peak HR-warm HR1min , Peak HR-warm HR2min and CR were significantly lower in SLE-PAH than in controls (P