Using new high tech photography tools researchers were able to take a detailed picture of the heart and found some interesting findings.
Study Highlights:
• The size and pumping ability of the right side of the heart differs by age, gender and race/ethnicity, according to the first large imaging study of the right ventricle.
• Defining the right ventricular norms for different populations could aid in identifying abnormal right ventricle size and function.
• Abnormal right ventricle function may be a sign of conditions that involve both the heart and lungs.
The study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests by understanding the heart in detail doctors can determine what is and isn’t normal in patients.
“The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen, so all types of lung diseases — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, and sleep apnea — can affect the right side of the heart,” said Steven Kawut, M.D., M.S., study author. “These results show underlying differences in people without clinical heart disease and could explain the variability of the right ventricular response in people with cardiopulmonary disease.”
The researchers found that the right ventricle is:
• smaller but pumps harder in older adults.
• larger in men than women.
• smaller in African-Americans and larger in Hispanics, compared with Caucasians.
“It’s not surprising that the relationships are different, since the right and left ventricles differ in their development in the embryo, their shape, and the area of the body they serve,” said Kawut, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the pulmonary vascular disease program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Pictures of more than 4,000 hearts were examined. The participants were both men and women with an average age of 61.
Researchers will keep these images and take new pictures of the same patients several years down the road in hopes of learning how the heart changes through time.
We specialize in providing our over 1,000,000 customers with relevant product and condition information created by our professional editorial staff which includes our team of medical writers, medical practitioners, and health educators. eDrugStore.com Staff on Facebook