Shireen Khawar, Shahid Rafiq.
Study of changes in Cardiac Structure and functions effects of age on the heart.
Biomedica Jan ;12(2):57-60.

To characterize the effect of aging on cardiac structure and functions, 150 males and females varying in age from 15 years to 50 years, were included in this study. All of them were found healthy and normal on history and physical examination. Chest X - Ray, ECG and routine laboratory tests were done in each case and these were also normal. Later their echocardiography was done in National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi. Left ventricular dimensions, volume, aortic and left atrial size, ejection fraction, cardiac output, and fractional shortening of heart were determined in each case. The participants were divided into four groups depending upon the age. It was found that left atrial size, aortic dimension, and thickness of interventricular septum increased with advancing age. Although walls of left ventricle hypertrophied with aging, but its internal cavity size remained almost unchanged. It was interesting to note that stroke volume, cardiac output, ejection fraction and fractional shortening of heart were not influenced by aging upto 50 years.

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