Cardiac parameters.

HW, Heart Weight; LV, Left Ventricle; LVIDd, Left Ventricle Internal Diameters at diastole; E and A, early and late filling waves; EDT, E-vel Deceleration Time. These echocardiographic parameters are the mean ± sem of the average of three to four consecutive cardiac cycles for each rat. % of Myocardial fibrosis was determined on Sirius red stained heart sections by measuring the percentage of fibrotic area to whole heart section area using Image J software. Non-parametric ANOVAs analysis with two factors allowed the evaluation of interaction between aging and genotype. Student's T test * p+/?vs. SHHFcp/cp at same time point; ; § pvs T1.5-mo for a same genotype; N stands for the number of rats; ns stands for not significant.