My father has / had temporal arteritis which had his sed rate at about 40's. The only way to monitor that right now is by sed rate. But recently was diagnosed with TB. And the sed rate is 60. Temporal arteritis can lead to blindness if not maintained but it's hard to tell if the 60 sed rate is due to TB / temporal arteritis / both... so is a level of 60 sed rate normal for TB patients? I couldnt find this anywhere. Heart rate of 40 is "low" for a normal person, but I suspect he's probably taking a beta-blocker for either blood pressure or a form of ischaemic heart disease. Beta-blocker is designed to slow heart rate down. Again there's no "normal rate" for people who are betablocked.
There is no single figure for normal heart rate. In a "normal" individual, rate between 60-100 is considered normal. Athletes would have a lower heart rate but this doesn't make them abnormal! If he's well then I won't bother too much about what his heart rate is doing.
Adrian (A&E Doctor) The sed rate is a non specific test, and I have seen them run high in normal individuals. You need other more specific tests. | 