The effect of aging on the electrocardiographic findings in the elderly--a 10-year longitudinal study: the Koganei Study.

To investigate the effect of aging on the electrocardiographic findings in the elderly, we analyzed the changes of the electrocardiographic findings according to the Minnesota Code in a 10-year longitudinal study. The aging effect on the electrocardiographic findings was expressed in the increase of Q-QS patterns and ST depression in both sexes, T-wave changes in males and QRS axis deviation in females. Prevalence of high amplitude R waves in both sexes, QRS axis deviation, atrioventricular conduction defects, intraventricular conduction defects and arrhythmias in males and T-wave changes in females also tended to increase with aging. Over the 10-year observation period, only high amplitude R waves, atrioventricular conduction defects and arrhythmias had a tendency to occur more frequently for both sexes in the hypertensives than in the normotensives. However, there was no significant difference in incidence between them. These facts suggest that, in the elderly, the age itself is important in ECG changes with aging.