Aging and scar tissue in human heart muscle

Histometrical estimation of scar tissue was made on 30 human hearts obtained at autopsy in order to know possible correlations between aging and scar tissue in the heart muscle. Estimation was made on histological specimens of the anterior wall of the left ventricle and the posteromedial papillary muscle, according to Chalkley's point counting method, and the amount of scar tissue was expressed in percentage. The mean percentages were 3.11, 5.26 and 9.24 in the epicardial, endocardial parts of the left ventricle and the papillary muscle, respectively. There were very significant differences between these 3 mean percentages. There were very significant correlations between the percentages of scar tissue in these 3 parts and ages. From these results, it is concluded that the scar formation increases in the heart muscle with aging.