What is the difference between pulse rate and heart rate?

Answer 1

So as to not over-complicate things, here's the jist of it:

In a nutshell; Heart rate is a measurement of anybeating/contraction of the heart, no matter how forceful the contraction or how much/little volume of fluid (blood) is shifted.

Pulse rate is a measurement of beating/contraction of the heart which produces enough pressure (ie, is forceful enough/moves enough fluid to the peripheries) for the pulse to be palpable.

Heart rate = ANY heart beat

Pulse rate = ONLY heart beats which are strong enough to be felt way out at your wrist/knee/ankle, etc.

A good example to illustrate this point is a group of conditions called Supra-Ventricular Tachycardias (SVTs). In SVTs (due to lots of varied reasons) your heart beats much faster than it normally would, this is shown as an increased Heart rate. However, due to the pace of the heart's beating, it doesn't have enough time to completely refill with blood like it normally would. So, whenever# the heart beats (in SVTs), only a small amount of blood is pushed out, not nearly enough to create the pressure required for you to feel the pulse. The Pulse rate is therefore going to be much lower than the Heart rate.

#Note: obviously some beats in SVTs generate enough pressure for a palpable pulse, or else there wouldn't be a pulse at all! It's just that there might be two "weak" beats for every "strong" beat, hence the disparity (Pulse Deficit).

Answer 2

No - the Heart Rate and Pulse are different things but they are obviously related.

To say they are the same is a massive contradiction of clinical assessment. Anyone who says this isn't true should look up Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). You can have a patient who, on assessment, has a pulse rate of 60 beats per minute when measured at the radial pulse. However, when you connect the patient to an ECG their heart rate can be massively elevated, to say, 180bpm. Therefore the heart rate is 180bpm but the pulse rate is 60bpm. They are different. Without doing an ECg on a patient like thie you might record the Pulse rate as 60bpm, strong and regular but the actual heart muscle is contracting at 180bpm. A patient left at home with symptoms like these will probably have an extremely poor prognosis should the cardiac rhythm not be corrected.

Anybody like to correct me? If so then please explain the different PEAs that occur also. Pulse will not be present yet the heart still has electrical activity which creates Beats Per Minute. Again, heart rate could be 60bpm with pulse rate at 0bpm.

If I'm wrong then every single clinician must be getting it wrong when they assess a patient with SVT. I'd like to see a clinician that has the ability to stand up in court and justify why they left an SVT patient at home because their 'Pulse Rate' was 60bpm even though the ECG showed a tachycardic patient at 180bpm.

Answer 3

Respiration rate refers to the number of times a person breathes, usually measured in one minute intervals. A normal resting respiration rate for an adult is 8-12 breaths per minute.

Heart rate refers to the number of times a person's heart beats, also usually measured in one minute intervals. A normal resting heart rate for an adult is 60-80 beats per minute.

Answer 4

In most cases, they should be the same. Technically, the heart rate is the rate of contraction as determined by EKG monitoring or by auscultation of the heart. The pulse rate is the rate determined by palpating over the location of a peripheral or central artery.

There are some conditions in which these may be different - for instance, if there is a non- or poorly conducted heart beat that did not produce enough cardiac output to cause a pulse wave at the peripheral pulse site, you may detect this beat at the heart, but not peripherally. Also, very fast heart rates may have different central and peripherally detected rates.

Answer 5

Yes. They are two terms which describe the same thing - how quickly your heart is beating.

Answer 6

yes