Background :Men portend increased risk for cardiovascular disease and events. But in the aged population, women are at similar risk as men in the development of cardiovascular disease and show poorer outcome after cardiovascular events. We analyzed the chronological changes of the cardiac structure and function in 160 healthy subjects according to age and gender. Method : The subjects were randomly chosen from the database of the Health Promotion Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. They had echocardiographic examinations for routine health screening. Subjects were divided into four age groups; 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Each group included 20 men and 20 women. Echocardiographic variables including diastolic and systolic left ventricular (LV) dimension (LVEDD and LVESD), LV ejection fraction (EF), left atrial dimension (LAD), LV mass, and LA volume were obtained from each subject. LV mass index (LVMI) and LA volume index (LAVI) were calculated from dividing LV mass and LA volume by body surface area, respectively. We compared all the variables according to their age and gender groups. Results : Mean age of the subjects was 59짹11 years. Thirty-six subjects were being treated for hypertension and 13 for diabetes. Mean LVEDD was 49.1짹4.3 mm, LVESD 30.3짹4.0 mm, LVEF 67.5짹5.1%, LAD 37.4짹4.9 mm, LVMI 91.5짹22.6 g/m2, and LAVI 12.4 짹3.5ml/m2. With the increase of the age, LVEDD, LVESD, LVEF, and LAD showed no significant changes in both genders. LVMI and LAVI for each age and gender group are shown in the table below. LVMI showed a cross-over phenomenon between gender around 70 of age, with lower values for women before 70 and higher after that. All these findings were still effective after adjusting for presence of hypertension or diabetes. Conclusion: LVMI and LAVI increase significantly with the increase of the age in women only, which may partially explain the worse outcome of the female patients with cardiovascular events in the elderly.