While the cardiovascular phenomenon occurs in both men and women, there are still major differences between blood pressure levels and heart sizes between males and females, said Dr. Nathaniel Reichek, director of Research and Education at St. Francis and lead researcher for the study.
While it is a long accepted medical fact that heart chambers decrease in size with age, the discovery of a rapid change at age 50 is what stands out in the research, which studied 218 Long Island and New York City residents.
The study selected residents between the ages 20 to 80, with no heart problems or other ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity that could have affected results.
The rise in blood pressure can be explained by the decrease in heart size, Reichek said. The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology had earlier correlated the rise in blood pressure to age increase, prompting the two institutions to recommend regular blood pressure checks for anyone over 50.
Reichek added another major finding of the study, presented on Feb. 1 by Reichek at the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 11th annual Scientific Sessions in California, was that the right ventricle in men is generally larger than in women.
The initial findings raised more questions such as can exercise slow down the heart size reduction? Why at age 50? Is the shrinkage related to subsequent heart failure in later years? Reichek admitted he does not have answers yet to these questions since the focus on the study is to discover the underlying cause of the heart size reduction.
