[Normal aging, hypertension and left ventricular filling]

Because of discrepancy in interpretation of early diastolic filling indices in normal subjects and hypertensive, we studied the correlations between age and radionuclide angiographic peak filling rate (PFR), doppler echocardiographic early E and late A waves, left ventricular mass (LVM), blood pressure (BP) and ejection fraction (EF) in cautiously screened 30 untreated hypertensive and 30 age paired normal subjects (mean of age 52 +/- 17 ranging from 34 to 78 years). No patient had gross obesity nor coronary artery disease. Univariate analysis revealed strong correlations between LV filling and age in normal (r = -0.82 p less than 0.0001) and hypertensive (r = -0.61 p less than 0.001), with a very significant difference in y intercepts (t = 0.61 p = 10(-6)). LVM correlated poorly with age (r = 0.35 p less than 0.05) but with none of the LV filling indexes. BP correlated with PFR (r = 0.33 p less than 0.05) and A wave (r = 0.44 p less than 0.02) in hypertensive only. After multivariate analysis, significant dependencies of PFR, age, LV mass were more accurate if BP was in a higher range. The variability of the values of LV filling indexes was wider in hypertensive than in normotensive. Normotensive aging and hypertension have similar effects on the cardiovascular system. In the most aged people even without apparent cardiac disease, it is not possible to identify the specific effects of hypertension on diastolic function.