Atrial kinetics and left ventricular diastolic filling in the healthy elderly

A delay of left ventricular isovolumic relaxation and decrease in myocardial compliance may result in a decline of measured early filling rates in elderly subjects. Previous studies of diastolic function, however, have not excluded coronary artery disease or addressed the contribution of atrial contraction to diastole-The present study evaluated radionuclide-derived diastolic variables in 13 healthy elderly volunteers aged 75 ± 6 years without symptoms or risk factors for coronary disease who had normal findings on the stress electrocardiogram, stress gated blood pool imaging and two-dimensional echocardiogram. Results were compared with those of a group of 10 healthy young volunteers aged 26 ± 5 years. High count, 32 frame, double-buffered gated blood pool acquisitions were obtained at rest in the left anterior oblique view with an RR interval variation