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Aging of the Adult Heart

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Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Heart

Part of the book series: Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine ((DICM,volume 90))

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Abstract

Both quantitative and qualitative assessments of normal cardiovascular function differ with age of the organism studied {1-4}. Thus, functional studies of the normal heart at a single age are incomplete and represent only a point on a continuum. A full understanding of heart function in stressful or pathologic states must consider that age-related changes modify the substrate upon which the stress or disease process is super-imposed and that the expression of a given pathologic state is not solely due to the disease per se but represents an age-disease interaction. Striking examples of this interaction can be observed in cardiac overload states {5} or in the effect of adaptation of the myocardium to chronic physical conditioning {6}.

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  1. Edward G. Lakatta
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics and College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, 231 Bethesda Avenue, 45267-0579, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Nicholas Sperelakis

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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Lakatta, E.G. (1989). Aging of the Adult Heart. In: Sperelakis, N. (eds) Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Heart. Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine, vol 90. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0873-7_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0873-7_30

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8222-8

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