The influence of heart rate and age on diastolic blood flow velocity in the left ventricular inflow tract

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between age-related blood flow velocity and heart rate in the left ventricular inflow tract, we studied 118 healthy volunteers (age greater than 15 years). The maximal velocity (Vmax) of the transmitral diastolic flow during early ventricular filling (E) and during filling due to atrial contraction (A) was measured at 3 sites in the left ventricle with pulsed Doppler echocardiography. At all these sites a significant positive correlation was found between the VmaxA and the EA ratio and the interaction of heart rate and age. VmaxA increases if age and heart rate increase. The influence of the interaction of age and heart rate on VmaxA is most pronounced near the mitral annulus. VmaxA is only related to age and decreases with advancing age. Our observations contribute to the explanation of the more important role of the atrial contraction in the elderly.