Left ventricular remodeling with age in normal men versus women: Novel insights using three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging☆
Section snippets
Subjects
Volunteers for this investigation represented a cross-sectional sample from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who were studied between 1989 and 1999. This sample included 200 women and 136 men (ages range from 21 to 96 years; median 50 for women; 51 for men). They were healthy, ambulatory, and living within the community, with no evidence of acute or chronic cardiovascular disease, or other debilitating illnesses. In addition, all subjects were screened for the absence of Q waves at
Results
Table 1characterizes the physiologic and anthropometric measurements and the effects of age on these measurements. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased significantly with age in both sexes. Height declined with age in women and men, and men’s weight also decreased with age. Body mass index was not related to age in either gender.
Discussion
We have demonstrated that remodeling of LV structure with age in both genders is characterized mainly by a shortening of the left ventricle along its long axis. In women, the decrease in long-axis length is about 9% over the 7 decades between ages 20 and 90 years, but is countered by an increase in wall thickness, resulting in an altered shape but no change in overall LV mass. In men, the length reduction is about 11% over the same time interval. However, wall thickness in men does not increase
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This study was supported by Grant 1R01 HL46223 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.