Effect of aging on Doppler echocardiographic filling parameters in normal subjects and in patients with coronary artery disease.

Abstract

This study was performed investigate and to investigate the influence of age on left ventricular diastolic filling parameters, as assessed by pulsed Doppler echocardiography. The study population consisted of 67 normal healthy subjects (Group I, age 15-66 years) and 117 patients (Group II, age 24-79 years), with angiographically proven coronary artery disease. Transmitral flow velocities were obtained by pulsed Doppler measurements at the level of the mitral annulus. Peak early and late diastolic filling velocities as well as integrated velocities during early and late filling phases were investigated for their relation to aging and a possible alteration with coronary artery disease. In normal subjects, a reduction of early filling velocities and a compensatory increase in late filling velocities were found with increasing age. In patients with coronary artery disease, however, there was no significant correlation of filling parameters with age. In addition, a comparison of filling parameters between age-matched normals and patients with coronary artery disease showed a further reduction of the contribution of early filling in patients with coronary artery disease. Thus, factors other than age may influence left ventricular diastolic filling behavior in patients with coronary artery disease. This can be demonstrated noninvasively using pulsed Doppler technique.