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Aging Changes in Cardiovascular Structure and Function

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Handbook of Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

With aging there is an increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CV) which includes a group of diseases and disorders such coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke. The etiology of the age-associated increase in CV is attributed to primary biological aging, adverse lifestyle, the environment, disease, socioeconomics, and other external factors that interact detrimentally with the biological aging. This chapter reviews a number of age-associated changes in the cardiovascular system including aging changes in the vasculature, physiological and clinical effects of vascular aging, aging changes in cardiac structure and resting function, impact of age and disease on the cardiovascular response to exercise and other stressors, aerobic exercise capacity and aging, mechanisms of impaired left ventricular (LV) function during maximal aerobic exercise in older adults, age-associated changes in the electrocardiogram (ECG), and propensity for development of arrythmias such as atrial fibrillation in older adults. A better understanding of the age-associated alterations in cardiac and vascular structure and function may lead to the development of new novel therapies to decrease the prevalence of CV disease and to attenuate the changes in cardiac and vascular function that accompany advancing age.

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Acknowledgment

This chapter was adapted, in part, from Fleg JL and Strait J (2012) Age-associated changes in cardiovascular structure and function: a fertile milieu for future disease. Heart Failure Reviews 17: 545-554.

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The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Jerome L. Fleg

  2. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Daniel E. Forman

  3. VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA

    Daniel E. Forman

Authors
  1. Jerome L. Fleg
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  2. Daniel E. Forman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jerome L. Fleg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Shari R. Waldstein

  2. Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Willem J. Kop

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Edward C. Suarez

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    William R. Lovallo

  5. Division of Gerontology Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Leslie I. Katzel

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Fleg, J.L., Forman, D.E. (2022). Aging Changes in Cardiovascular Structure and Function. In: Waldstein, S.R., Kop, W.J., Suarez, E.C., Lovallo, W.R., Katzel, L.I. (eds) Handbook of Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85960-6_6

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