Effect of aging on heart rate and blood pressure variabilities in healthy men and women

OBJECT: To clarify the effect of aging and gender on heart rate and blood pressure variability in healthy men and women. SUBJECT AND METHODS: One hundred ninety four healthy subjects aged from 20 to 70(97 men and 97 women) were examined. Heart beat and blood pressure during 5 minutes in the supine and standing positions were measured under a respiration rate of 15/min. Blood pressure and heart were measured with Finapres and Biotop, respectively. Data entry and spectral analysis were carried out by the Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) method with BIMUTAS-II, after correcting 256 data with Hanning window function and resampling at 200 Hz. RESULT AND DISCUSSION: High frequency power(HF: 0.15-0.50 Hz) of heart rate variability decreased with age in both men and women, Low frequency power (LF: 0.05-0.15 Hz) of systolic blood pressure(SBP) variability in the standing posture decreased with age in men. The HF of SBP variability in the standing posture was decreased with age in both men and women. These findings suggest that aging and gender affected heart rate and blood pressure variability.