Age-related changes in heart function by serial echocardiography in women aged 40-80 years.

Aim: To determine if a defined set of echocardiographic parameters at entry and exit of a longitudinal study over 5 years showed changes with aging.

Methods: The cohort consisted of 484 randomly recruited women aged 40-80. They were examined by two echocardiography cardiologists, independent of the medical information for these women.

Results: Across the age decades (40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 years), body weight and body surface area (BSA) did not vary, and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was stable; systolic blood pressure (SBP) progressively increased. There was gradual decline in left ventricular (LV) diastolic function, increase in LV muscle mass, and decrease in LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV). The serial decrease in rate of change over 5 years in ejection fraction (ET) was small but significant across the four age decades.

Conclusions: As expected, there were age-related changes in cardiac structure and function over time in women who showed no apparent cardiovascular disease (CVD) at entry to the study. The direction of these serial changes was toward the development of LV stiffness and likelihood of subsequent heart failure. The clinical significance of the decrease in rate of change in EF remains unclear.