Old hypertensive patient: a hard challenge

Abstract

BACKGROUND High blood pressure is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factor and its incidence is continuously increasing: on 2025 1/3 of adult world population will suffer of it. Moreover, the therapy of elderly hypertension sufferer patient is still growing up in importance for the continuous increase of world population average life. With ageing, the cardiovascular system suffers neurohormonal and haemodinamic modifications which determine the onset of isolate systolic hypertension, which is characteristic of the elderly. This pathology results linked to a higher cardiovascular risk. AIM OF THE STUDY This review aims to analyze and evaluate present and future therapeutic opportunities about anti-hypertensive therapy in elderly people. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Also in elderly people systolic blood pressure values must be lower than 150 mmHg, but it’s also important to maintain diastolic pressure not under 70 mmHg, to avoid phenomenons of cerebral and coronary hypo-perfusion (J curve). The benefits of an effective anti-hypertensive therapy are achieved thanks to both blood pressure lowering “per se” and to the decrease of cardiovascular mortality and morbility. Blood pressure control in the elderly is a hard challenge for the low compliance to the therapy, for the importance of the comorbidity and for the supplementary risk factors. ESH-ESC 2007 guidelines recommend for elderly highblood pressure sufferer patient the use first of all of calcium-antagonists and thiazides diuretics, and for second line ACE-inhibitors, ARB and beta-blockers. In several patients combinations of two or more drugs are necessary to obtain pressure control.

Keywords

• Hypertension
• Elderly
• Cardiovascular mortality and morbility
• Patient compliance.