2012 Volume 71 Issue 1 Pages 49-55
Background: The Uygur’s natural longevity people are found in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in western China, and most of them live without any medical service or treatment. We have studied the cardiac function of Uygur’s natural longevity people and compared them with their Japanese counterparts. Subjects and Methods: We investigated 113 Uygur’s natural longevity people (UL group; average 94.8 ± 4.1 years old, 72 male and 41 female) at the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, China, and 56 Japanese longevity people (JL group; average 93.5 ± 3.9 years old, 11 male and 45 female) at Ibaraki prefecture, using echocardiography. Results: There were no significant differences in the left ventricle diameter and ejection fraction between the two groups (UL vs. JL = 46.6 ± 8.1 mm vs. 46.2 ± 7.4 mm, p = 0.55, UL vs. JL = 64.2 ± 9.7% vs. 66.0 ± 7.9%, p = 0.39, respectively). On the other hand, both left atrial diameter and E/e’ in the UL group were significantly smaller than those in the JL group (UL vs. JL = 32.4 ± 8.5 mm vs. 35.2 ± 7.1mm, p < 0.05, UL vs. JL = 9.3 ± 3.3 cm/s vs. 15.8 ± 5.6 cm/s, p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Our results indicate that the left ventricle diastolic function of the UL group was preserved for their age compared with the JL group. These results might, at least in part, be due to racial differences, although further investigation will be necessary.
