[Heart rate: mechanical risk].

Abstract

The artery is subject to tangential mechanical forces, involving heart rate and shearing forces. A mechanical theory of atherosclerosis explains the preferential development of plaques according to the distribution of these forces. Experimental data and an epidemiological article are in favour of the role of heart rate in cardiovascular complications. However, the benefit of therapeutic reduction of heart rate will probably be difficult to prove except in cases in which arterial lesions develop rapidly, as demonstrated in Marfan's disease.