Left ventricular mass index and prevalence of heart disease in the population aged 80 years and over.

Clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings of 69 subjects aged 80 years or over were analyzed in order to assess the prevalence of left ventricular mass, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and cigarette smoking. Of the 69 subjects studied, 41 had no symptoms or sign of cardiovascular disease, 28 had one or more cardiac symptoms (NYHA stage 2-4). 25 had electrocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy and there were no differences between the asymptomatic and symptomatic groups. Echocardiographically, the left ventricular mass index ranged between 103 to 247 g/m2 in men and 170 to 251 g/m2 in women. In 36 subjects with high left ventricular mass index, the ventricular septal thicknesses ranged from 12 mm to 15 mm in 19 subjects, and posterior wall thicknesses ranged from 12 mm to 16 mm in 17 subjects. Of the 58 patients with an adequate echocardiogram, 47 had clinically diagnosed hypertension (81%). In our study population, a prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (62%), isolated systolic hypertension (26%), definite hypertension (33.3%), high LDL-cholesterol (63%), low HDL-cholesterol (26%), abnormal Q wave (16%), cigarette smoking (47.8%) and diabetes mellitus (1.4%) were found.