Age related diastolic function in amateur athletes

Diastolic function get worse with increasing age. Aim of this study was to investigate the impact of aerobic training on diastolic function with increasing age with speckle tracking echocardiography. We enrolled 125 amateur swimmers (AG), divided in three groups at increasing age: young athletes, adult athletes (AG2), old athletes (AG3). We enrolled 95 sedentary controls (SG) age-matched with athletes and divided into three groups: young sedentary group, adult sedentary group (SG2) and old sedentary group (SG3). AG had better diastolic function than SG. AG showed lower left ventricular twist than controls. E/A ratio got worse at increasing of age in all population (r = −0.34; p < 0.001); particularly in SG2 and SG3 there was a worsening of diastolic function respect to diastolic function of AG2 and AG3; in fact E/A ratio decreased with aging. Furthermore in SG E/A ratio showed a linear correlation with age (r = −0.54; p < 0.001); in AG this correlation was lost. Therefore the training and age were independent predictor of E/A (respectively β = −0.27; p = 0.004; β = −0.24, p = 0.008). Regular and aerobic training may minimize aging changes of diastolic function. This training-effect may play a key role to preserve diastolic filling in older athletes.