As the number, availability, and often the invasiveness and associated risks of new cardiovascular treatments expands, health care providers are increasingly called upon to decide whether or not to recommend these therapies to the increasing numbers of older patients with cardiovascular disease. In Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly, a panel of clinicians, researchers, and leaders in the field review and discuss the latest findings on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of cardiovascular disease in the older patient. The authors explain the physiological changes associated with the normal aging process that may lead to the development of disease, to adverse consequences once disease develops, and which alter the risk-benefit equation for medical and other interventions designed to diagnose, assess, and treat cardiovascular disease. The focus is on particularly common syndromes in the elderly, including cardiac failure with normal ejection fraction, isolated systolic hypertension, and atrial fibrillation. Wherever possible, the authors take an evidence-based approach to recommendations and rely heavily on prospective clinical trials. The value of lifestyle changes in the aging population, the use of primary and secondary prevention strategies, and the treatment of acute and chronic ischemic disease and its complications are also discussed.
Comprehensive and authoritative, Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly offers physicians and other providers who care for the older patient a gold-standard approach to understanding and managing cardiovascular disease in this group.