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. 2016 Jun 28;11(6):e0158302.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158302. eCollection 2016.

Possible Mechanisms Underlying Aging-Related Changes in Early Diastolic Filling and Long Axis Motion-Left Ventricular Length and Blood Pressure

Roger E Peverill  1 , Bon Chou  1 , Lesley Donelan  1 , Philip M Mottram  1 , John S Gelman  1
Affiliations

Possible Mechanisms Underlying Aging-Related Changes in Early Diastolic Filling and Long Axis Motion-Left Ventricular Length and Blood Pressure

Roger E Peverill et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The transmitral E wave and the peak velocity of early diastolic mitral annular motion (e`) both decrease with age, but the mechanisms underlying these age-related changes are incompletely understood. This study investigated the possible contributions of blood pressure (BP) and left ventricular end-diastolic length (LVEDL) to age-related reductions in E and e`.

Methods: The study group were 82 healthy adult subjects <55 years of age who were not obese or hypertensive. Transmitral flow and mitral annular motion were recorded using pulsed-wave Doppler. LVEDL was measured from the mitral annular plane to the apical endocardium.

Results: Age was positively correlated with diastolic BP and septal wall thickness (SWT), inversely correlated with LVEDL (β = -0.25) after adjustment for sex and body surface area, but was not related to left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD). Age was also inversely correlated with E (r = -0.36), septal e`(r = -0.53) and lateral e`(r = -0.53). On multivariable analysis, E was inversely correlated with diastolic BP and LVEDD, septal e`was inversely correlated with diastolic BP and positively correlated with SWT and LVEDL, after adjusting for body mass index, whilst lateral e`was inversely correlated with diastolic BP and positively correlated with LVEDL.

Conclusion: The above findings are consistent with higher BP being a contributor to age-related reductions in both E and e`and shortening of LVEDL with age being a contributor to the age-related reduction in e`. An implication of these findings is that slowing of myocyte relaxation is unlikely to be the sole, and may not be the main, mechanism underlying age-related decreases in E and e`.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Example of the method for tracing the velocity time integrals of the systolic and early diastolic tissue Doppler signals from the mitral annulus.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Scatter plots of selected echocardiographic variables and age.
The linear regression statistics are shown in Table 3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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