Heart Rate Turbulence
Heart rate turbulence (HRT) is the return to equilibrium of heart rate after a premature ventricular contraction (PVC). It consists of a brief speed-up in heart rate, followed by a slow decrease back to the baseline rate. An important feature of HRT is that PVCs occur naturally in most adults, so measuring the characteristics of a given person's HRT offers a noninvasive way to evaluate his or her cardiac function without applying artificial external stimuli.
The measured values of HRT parameters have been shown to be a statistically significant predictor of the probability of dying from cardiac disease after a patient suffers a heart attack. There are indications that HRT may help predict a person's risk from dying suddenly, and that HRT can predict death not only in patients who have suffered a heart attack, but those who have other cardiac diseases as well.
HRT has nothing to do with turbulence in fluid dynamics.
See also Heart rate variability.
Read more about Heart Rate Turbulence: History, Mechanism of HRT
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