Why the study?
Does increasing age reduce left ventricular contractile performance during exercise in fit men?
Does increasing age reduce left ventricular contractile performance during exercise in fit men?
Increasing age is associated with reduced left ventricular contractile performance during exercise, even in fit individuals.
Age may blunt exercise LVEF rise even in fit men; leaves open prognostic relevance and mechanisms.
We investigated, by radionuclide ventriculography, left ventricular function in 10 fit elderly men and in 11 young volunteers. During exercise in the young subjects left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) rose from 63 +/- 3 to 73 +/- 1 (P less than 0.005) and end systolic volume (ESV) fell from 48 +/- 6 to 38 +/- 5 ml (P less than 0 +/- 0.005) but were unchanged in the elderly (57 +/- 3 to 55 +/- 3 and 57 +/- 6 to 64 +/- 7 ml, respectively (NS). End diastolic volume (EDV) did not change in either group; stroke volume rose significantly only in the younger subjects, cardiac output rose in both groups but less in the elderly (5 +/- 0.5 to 12 +/- 1 vs 6 +/- 0.5 to 18 +/- 11 min-1). We conclude that this data lend support to the hypothesis that increasing age is associated with reduced left ventricular contractile performance.
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Findlay et al. (1984) studied this question.
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