Disuse atrophy of the left ventricle in chronically bedridden elderly people

In the elderly cardiac size and function are determined by their level of physical activity. In this study, we assessed by echocardiography, the anatomic and physiologic changes of the heart in 28 elderly patients who had no cardiac disease and who were chronically bedridden. The data obtained were compared to those obtained from a control group of 38 age and sex matched elderly people whose activities had not been restricted. Chronically bedridden patients had markedly smaller left ventricular dimensions in both end-diastole and end-systole and smaller left atrial dimensions than did control subjects (3.7 +/- 0.7 vs 4.7 +/- 0.6 cm, p less than 0.001, 2.4 +/- 0.8 vs 2.9 +/- 0.7 cm, p less than 0.02 and 3.2 +/- 0.5 vs 3.8 +/- 0.9 cm, p less than 0.01, respectively). Though the wall thickness of the interventricular septum did not differ between the study groups, the left ventricular posterior walls of the bedridden group were significantly thinner than in the control group (0.8 +/- 0.2 vs 1.0 +/- 0.2 cm, p less than 0.01). The bedridden group had a significantly lower stroke index (26.9 +/- 6.2 vs 47.0 +/- 11.1 ml/m2, p less than 0.001) and cardiac index (1.84 +/- 0.52 vs 3.15 +/- 0.63 l/min/m2, p less than 0.001) than did the control group. Left ventricular mass index and left ventricular systolic stress were significantly lower in bedridden patients than in control subjects (88.0 +/- 18.1 vs 143.5 +/- 30.9 g/m2, p less than 0.001, and 135.9 +/- 4.9 vs 186.6 +/- 35.7 10(3) dynes/cm2, p less than 0.001, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)