Overview
- Imperial College London researchers presented Wednesday at the European Stroke Organisation Conference an analysis of nearly 460,000 UK Biobank participants tracked for about 14 years.
- Researchers reported a U-shaped link after adjusting for other risks, with the lowest stroke risk at 60 to 69 beats per minute and higher risk below 50 bpm or at 90 bpm and above.
- People at or above 90 bpm had a 45% higher stroke risk, while those below 50 bpm had a 25% higher risk compared with the midrange group.
- The pattern was most evident in people without atrial fibrillation because AFib is such a strong stroke risk factor that it can mask the effect of heart rate.
- Very low rates were tied mainly to ischemic stroke, high rates to both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and the authors stressed the results are observational and not yet peer-reviewed.