Cardiovascular disease in the elderly

Abstract

Aging is the continuous progressive decline in function that occurs in organs and the organ systems, and one of them is cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular disease is the most frequent diagnosis in elderly people, and is the leading cause of death in both men and women older than 65 years of age. There are many changes of cardiovascular system, and they are the consequence of aging, and partly of high frequency of hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart failure, and diseases of other vital organs (brain, lung, kidney, liver). Symptoms of cardiovascular diseases are likely to be termed atypical in older patients, reactions to applied drugs are different compared with middle age, and medical experts of all kinds should have in mind all of that.

Starenje predstavlja neprekidni, progresivni proces gubitka funkcije većine organa i sistema organa, a među njima i kardiovaskularnog sistema. Kardiovaskularne bolesti su najčešća dijagnoza u starih ljudi i vodeći uzrok smrti u muškaraca i žena, starijih od 65 godina. Promene kardiovaskularnog sistema su brojne i delom izazvane procesima koji su u vezi sa samim starenjem, a delom zbog češće pojave hipertenzije, ateroskleroze, srčane insuficijencije,pa i poremećaja funkcije drugih vitalnih organa (mozga, pluća, bubrega, jetre). Starije osobe ispoljavaju atipične simptome kardiovakularnih bolesti, drugačije reakcije na primenjene lekove, tako da medicinski stručnjaci svih profila ovo moraju da imaju u vidu.