Left ventricular wall motion determined by echocardiography in elderly subjects

Few data regarding the aging-associated alteration in shortening of cardiac fibres are available. To investigate this problem echocardiographic examination in older, healthy, physically active subjects were performed to measure the parameters of left ventricle at rest. The measurements were made of the posterior wall excursion (PWE), mean posterior wall velocity (mean PWV) and maximal posterior wall velocity (PWVM). It was found, that aging involves reduction of all the analysed parameters. These findings suggest that aging in healthy, physically active man reduces shortening of left ventricular fibres and the amplitude of ventricular wall excursion in resting state.