Importance of the first two minutes of heart rate recovery after exercise treadmill testing in predicting mortality and the presence of coronary artery disease in men

We retrospectively analyzed exercise treadmill and coronary angiographic data of 2,193 men to compare heart rate (HR) recovery with angiographic and mortality data during a follow-up study of 7 ± 2.7 years. Only the first 2 minutes of HR recovery predicted mortality (p <0.001), and the HR decrease during the second minute of recovery predicted the presence of coronary artery disease (p <0.05).