ABSTRACT
Similarly as we did in 2010, please, find below our annual overview of the published papers in the International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging in the year 2011. We believe that we have received again very interesting papers over the last year, which we have angiography, intravascular imaging, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography. In 2011 we published two Topical issues, one on QCA, IVUS and OCT in interventional cardiology (Guest Editors HG Bezerra, RA Costa and HM Garcia-Garcia, Vol. 27, no. 2),..
Subject(s)
Angiography , Cardiovascular Diseases , Echocardiography , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Nuclear Medicine , X-Rays , Tomography , Ultrasonography, InterventionalABSTRACT
AIM: To study the effect of aging on and the relationship between echocardiographically estimated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure and estimated right ventricular (RV) systolic pressure among healthy normotensive individuals. METHODS: We analyzed 249 healthy individuals (aged 18-82 years, 52% men) with normal echocardiographic findings and reliably measurable tricuspid regurgitation gradients. Subjects with blood pressure >140/90 mmHg and/or LV hypertrophy were excluded. LV & RV dimensions and LV mass were measured with M-mode echocardiography. Atrial (A) volumes were determined with the area-length method. Diastolic function was assessed with transmitral Doppler and mitral annulus tissue Doppler. The ratio of transmitral early peak velocity to early diastolic mitral annulus velocity (E/E') was used as estimation of LV filling pressure. The transtricuspid Doppler gradient was used to estimate RV end-systolic pressure. RESULTS: Even in normotensive individuals aging was accompanied by an increase in LV mass and LA dimensions and an increase in relaxation abnormalities. E/E' increased with every decade: from 7.8 for age 18-35 years to 10.9 for age > or =75 years (p<0.0001) as did the transtricuspid gradient: from 18.3 mmHg for age 18-35 years to 25.8 mmHg for age > or =75 years (p<0.0001). Linear regression showed that estimated RV systolic pressure was independently predicted by age, LA volume, LV systolic function and E/E'. CONCLUSION: Among normotensive healthy individuals both E/E' and tricuspid regurgitation gradients increase significantly with aging. Moreover the E/E' ratio was independently predicting the tricuspid regurgitation gradient. These findings support the need for further studies defining age specific normal values.
