Use of tibial length to quantify cardiac hypertrophy: application in the aging rat
- 1 December 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physiological Society in American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology
- Vol. 243 (6), H941-H947
- https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.1982.243.6.h941
Abstract
Fluctuations in body weight as occur with aging make body weight an unreliable reference for normalizing heart weight. We compared heart weight normalized by tibial length, which remains constant after maturity, with that normalized by body weight in 5- to 28-mo-old male Wistar rats. When normalized by tibial length or body weight, relative to the 5-mo heart, the senescent left ventricle undergoes 17 vs. 38% hypertrophy, respectively, and the right ventricle undergoes 0 vs. 28% hypertrophy, respectively. Histological measurements in the 25- compared with the 5-mo-old left ventricles reveal 6% larger myocyte diameters and 12% larger cellular cross-sectional areas, indicating about 15% hypertrophy; this value agrees more closely with the estimates based on tibial length than with those based on body weight. To allow prediction of left ventricular weight in a living rat, a regression equation using body weight, age, and tibial length was derived. This enabled us to perform a longitudinal aging study that verified that the above results were not biased by selective survival. Thus, in conditions in which body weight changes, cardiac hypertrophy can be more accurately quantified by relating heart weight to tibial length than to body weight. This approach may have applicability for assessing relative sizes of other organs as well.This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- The mechanical characteristics of hypertrophied rabbit cardiac muscle in the absence of congestive heart failure: the contractile and series elastic elements.Circulation Research, 1977
- Cardiac enlargement mechanisms with exercise training and pressure overloadJournal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 1976
- Arterial impedance as ventricular afterload.Circulation Research, 1975
- Properties of Myocardium in CardiomegalyCirculation Research, 1963
- CARDIOVASCULAR EFFECTS OF THYROXINE TREATMENT IN NORMAL RATSCanadian Journal of Biochemistry and Physiology, 1962
- Cardiac Hypertrophy in Rats and Mice Given 3, 3', 5-Triiodo-L-Thyronine OrallyAmerican Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content, 1958
- The Relation Between Body Weight Changes and Life Duration in Male RatsJournal of Gerontology, 1957
- CHANGES IN HEART WEIGHT AND BLOOD PRESSURE FOLLOWING AORTIC CONSTRICTION IN RATSCanadian Journal of Biochemistry and Physiology, 1955
- Blood Pressure and Heart Size in Aging RatsJournal of Gerontology, 1955
- ORGAN WORK AND ORGAN WEIGHTThe Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1939