Electrocardiographic Investigations During Car Driving on Road

Heart rate, blood pressure and e.c.g. tracings were investigated on 84 subjects (20 average drivers, 12 seniors, 32 test drivers and 20 women) driving their own cars over six different test routes (fast and slow town driving; fast and slow motorway driving; up- and down-hill driving). While blood pressure and e.c.g. tracings show no significant variations, heart rate increases from 71 ± 8 beats/min (at rest)to 90 ± 11 beats/min (max 145 beats/min) and shows irregular but continuous variations from ±8-10% to ±50% of the immediately preceding value within 6-8 to 30-50 seconds.

The intervening nervous, humoral and metabolic factors (O₂ consumption during driving) are also discussed.