How Old Is Your Heart Really? MRI Answers

The official identity card leaves no doubt. And it says 50. But perhaps, given the poorly controlled hypertension for some time, for the heart the years that have passed since the first cry are already five more because high blood pressure ages it. And the same tendency towards disparity between chronological age and biological cardiac age can be observed in those who have been struggling with obesity for a long time, in those who suffer from diabetes or in any case present specific cardiovascular risk factors. Only, from the outside, it is difficult to understand who has a deceptive identity card. And therefore it is also difficult to plan specific prevention plans to reduce the probability of suffering a heart attack or stroke .

But beware: the challenge of recognizing the true age of the heart can be won. Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging. The use of this strategy is proposed by a research coordinated by experts from the University of East Anglia (UEA), coordinated by Pankaj Garg , of the Norwich Medical School of UEA. The study was published in the Open European Heart Journal .

A tailor-made signal

Essentially, magnetic resonance imaging could become a reliable marker to understand the functional age of the heart muscle and above all how much and how unhealthy habits can influence the trajectory of cardiovascular health. In practice, it promises to discover if and how much the heart is older than the person who carries it in the chest, as can happen in hypertensives, diabetics and those with metabolic problems. As Garg himself points out in a note, "the new approach based on magnetic resonance does not limit itself to counting birthdays, but also measures how well your heart resists".

The Role of Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity

What did the experts look for? Evaluating subjects in hospitals in the United Kingdom, Spain and Singapore, they focused on the MRI scans of 557 people: 191 healthy individuals and 366 with pathologies such as hypertension , diabetes or obesity. In this population, thanks to advanced imaging techniques, they assessed parameters such as the size and strength of the heart chambers. This is how they arrived at a formula that helps calculate the " functional age " of the heart. This evaluation system was then also used to analyze healthy hearts. This is how they reached their goal. "We discovered that an MRI can reveal your 'functional age' of the heart," comments Garg. In healthy people, cardiac age was similar to chronological age. But in patients with pathologies such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and atrial fibrillation , the functional cardiac age was significantly higher."

The hearts of the sick age rapidly

The researchers' analysis could lead to a sort of personalized prevention. As the researchers point out, people with health problems such as diabetes or obesity often have a heart that ages faster than expected, sometimes even by decades. Knowing this could help doctors intervene even earlier. Not only that. The analysis could also ring an alarm bell that people need to take better care of themselves, fighting unhealthy diets, a sedentary lifestyle and other risk factors. Thanks to the ability to identify hearts destined for faster aging, in short, problems could be identified earlier and therefore it could be easier to address them.

Negative effects: cost and time of the exam

“Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has become an absolutely fundamental test in cardiology and not only for heart patients: obviously it is not accessible to everyone due to costs and time, but as this interesting study shows, it can be important to evaluate the state of well-being of our cardiac muscle – comments Stefano Carugo , Director of the Cardio-thoracic-vascular Department of the Irccs Policlinico di Milano - University of Milan. Even for the heart, in fact, biological age does not always go hand in hand with chronological age. Let us remember that a lot depends on us: we must keep our heart healthy with careful tests as well as maintaining a careful and accurate lifestyle”.