Determination of Left Ventricular Mass by Echocardiography in a Normal Population: Effect of Age and Sex in Addition to Body Size
Section snippets
Study Participants.
As part of an investigation of the effect of age on left ventricular dimensions and filling dynamics in normal, healthy persons,6 a two-dimensional-guided M-mode echocardiographic study was performed in 117 healthy adult volunteers who resided in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Six of these subjects (5%) were excluded from further analysis because of technically inadequate measurements. Of the 111 remaining subjects, 47 were male and 64 were female; 108 were white. As determined by interview, 8 of
RESULTS
Echocardiography measurements for both male and female subjects stratified by age are shown in Table 3. When indexed for height (108 ± 17 g/m), left ventricular mass was numerically similar to but slightly more than when it was indexed for body surface area (99 ± 15 g/m2) among men. When indexed for either body surface area or height, left ventricular mass was higher in male than in female subjects. In a parallel age-slope model, left ventricular mass was higher in men than in women by 46 g/m2.
DISCUSSION
The results of this study suggest that left ventricular mass, as assessed by two-dimensional-guided M-mode echocardiography, is affected by age in women but not in men. This observation does not seem to be explained by higher blood pressures in older women than in younger female subjects. A small increase in body mass index with advancing age was noted in women but not in men, but the mean body mass index was within the normal range.8 This effect could have explained the different sex responses
CONCLUSION
Left ventricular mass, as assessed by two-dimensional-guided M-mode echocardiography, is affected not only by body size and sex but also by age in women. In our laboratory, all three factors are considered when the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy is determined. Thus, left ventricular hypertrophy can be diagnosed when left ventricular mass, indexed for body size, exceeds the upper 95% confidence interval of normal for each sex. In clinical studies that use echocardiographic left
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Gender differences in normal left ventricle of adult FVB/N mice due to variation in interleukins and natriuretic peptides expression levels
2015, CytokineCitation Excerpt :It is well recognized that cardiac dimensions and physiology vary predictably with gender [14] in response to age. Generally, normal women revealed increased heart weight (HW) index [17], and normal men have larger LV dimensions and greater LV mass than women [16], and LV mass remains fairly constant in males or minor decreases with age associated with cell number loss [18] in contrary to females in which LV mass increases (and do not decreases like men) more with age [18–20]. Older women have greater LV mass than males [18] due to smaller caliber, decreased arterial (carotid) wall thickness [21], greater pulsatile vascular loading [22], and elevated pulse pressure [23] as an indicator of lower arterial capacity that contribute to increase LV mass with age compared to men.
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Current address: Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio.