[Polycardiographic researches on over 90 years old subjects (author's transl)]

In the recent years an increasing attention has been focused on the systolic time intervals (STI) as reliable indicators of left ventircular contractile performance. As regards the diagnostic usefulness of STI in old persons only few papers can be found in the literature, all of them being concerned with subjects aged less than 90 years. With the aim to assess the usefulness and the reliability of the method and the caracteristics of left ventricular function in the tenth decade, STI as well as heart volume (HV) were determined on a group of 35 subjects aged 90 years and over (mean age 93.2 years) normotensive and free from clinical evidence of heart disease. STI (PEPI, LVETI, QS2I, PEP/LVET) values showed no differences with those considered as normal. A marked increase was recorded for the HV values. These results suggest that in the very advanced age a good level of left ventricular contractile performance can be mantained by the compensatory mechanism represented by heart dilation according to the Frank Starling principle.