The association among age, early mitral leaflet closure, cardiac structure, diastolic indices and NT-proBNP in an asymptomatic Taiwanese population

article i nfo Background: Advanced age is associated with left ventricular (LV) remodeling and impaired diastole. The associ- ation among aging, mitral leaflet closure (EF slope), cardiac structures, and diastolic indices in an asymptomatic Taiwanese population is largely unknown. Methods: We studied 8103 asymptomatic participants (49.5 ± 11.6 years, 38.2% women) from a health evalua- tion cohort (2004-2012) in a tertiary center in Taiwan. Echo-derived LV structure/function, and M-mode based EFslope(mm/s)andserumNT-proBNPlevelwere obtained.TheassociationbetweenEFslope andtheotherclin- ical or echo-based parameters was investigated. Results: Average values for EF slope among various age groups in the Taiwanese population were determined for both genders. Advanced age was associated with reductions in EF slope (adjusted estimate: −0.35/per decade). Reduced EF slope was associated with older age, higher blood pressure and greater body mass index in multi- variate models (all p b 0.05). Reduced EF slope was correlated with greater cardiac concentricity, abnormal E' and E/E' (AUROC: 0.74 and 0.77, respectively, both p b 0.05) and elevated NT-proBNP (Coef: 5.98 pg/mL, per −10 mm/s EF slope, 95% CI: 7.82 to 4.17, p b 0.001). EF-slope also clearly discriminated individuals with abnor- mal estimated LV filling (E/Ecategorized by b8, ≥ 8& b15, ≥15, ANOVA p b 0.001). Conclusions: EF-slope reduction in the asymptomatic Taiwanese population was correlated with age, several unfavorable LV remodeling, and impaired diastolic function parameters, and EF-slope can be an effective clinical diagnostic tool for identifying poor Eand elevated LV filling pressure. In addition, our data provided reference values for EF-slope in various age groups. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license