Nuances of antihypertensive therapy in elderly patients

Abstract

Increased aortic stiffness is an important factor of the arterial hypertension pathogenesis in patients of elderly and senile age, which conditions a number of arterial hypertension features. Preserving cognitive function is a key challenge of antihypertensive therapy throughout life. The development of senile asthenia can alter the direction and strength of the correlation between the blood pressure levels and the all-cause mortality, however, the correlation with the risk of cardiovascular events remains positive even in patients above 85 years of age. Such correlation change is translated into defining the target blood pressure levels and into the features of selecting the antihypertensive therapy strategy, which often requires the inclusion of deprescribing algorithm. The potential of free antihypertensive drug combinations, as well as the principles of the prescribed antihypertensive therapy adjustment or withdrawal in elderly patients within the context of the treatment features are discussed in the paper.

Keywords

• antihypertensive therapy
• elderly patients
• deprescribing