Influence of aging on cardiac function examined by echocardiography

We assessed the influence of aging on cardiac function by means of parameters measured by echocardiography. The study group consisted of 494 normal subjects aged 13 to 87 years. We measured the ratio of early filling (E) and atrial contraction (A) transmitral flow velocities (E/A) of left and right ventricular inflow (LV E/A and RV E/A) for assessment of diastolic function. We also measured left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and the ratio of pre-ejection period (PEP) and ejection time (ET) of the left ventricle (PEP/ET) for assessment of systolic function. Both LV E/A and RV E/A decreased significantly with aging while LVEF and PEP/ET remained normal range. The decline rate as aging was greater in LV E/A than in RV E/A. These results showed that both left and right ventricular diastolic function deteriorated with aging while left ventricular systolic function was not noticeably affected by aging. We suggest that indexes of diastolic function are more sensitive than those of systolic function when the natural course is studied in a large population.