Age-related changes in size of the aortic valve annulus in man

Data previously published in the literature, regarding the size of the aortic valve in man, have been reanalyzed. Aortic valve size increases at a slower rate than the surface area of the human body until maturity is reached at approximately 18 to 21 years of age. After that age, aortic valve size increases nearly linearly with age. There appears to be a slightly faster rate of aortic dilatation in males than in females, but this may be due to errors in estimating body surface area from only height and weight for obviously different body contours. Body surface area, thus, does not seem to be a good normalizing factor for the aortic valve size and the practice of referencing aortic valve sizes to the body surface area size should be discontinued. Alternate forms of using linear regression equations are reported and would appear to be preferable.