Resting left ventricular ejection fraction in elderly patients without evidence of heart disease

Stein and Sabbah¹ found peak aortic blood acceleration to be a good index of global left ventricular (LV) performance. Bennett et al² demonstrated a close relation between peak aortic blood acceleration and LV ejection fraction (EF) measured angiographically. Gardin et al³ and we⁴ observed by continuous-wave Doppler a decrease of both peak aortic blood acceleration and peak blood velocity with age in adults with no evidence of heart disease. Gardin et al³ suggested that the decrease in aortic peak flow velocity noted in normal subjects with increasing age is probably related to an increase in aortic root dimension. Increased aortic size with age may have caused a reduction of aortic peak velocity in our older age groups.⁴ Therefore, we investigated another index of LV performance, the resting LVEF, to attain more information about the characteristics of resting LV function in elderly patients with no evidence of heart disease.