Peçanha T, et al. - Authors evaluated heart rate (HR) responses during and after a maximal graded exercise test in 27 female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 14 female healthy control participants. They found that patients with RA demonstrated reduced chronotropic response to exercise and slower post-exercise HR recovery (HRR) vs control participants. These abnormal autonomic responses to exercise signaled the presence of cardiac autonomic dysfunction and increased cardiovascular risk in this patient population. Further, in patients with RA, the prevalence of chronotropic incompetence and abnormal HRR were 22.2% and 37.1%, respectively.