15^th Global Cardiology Summit

Cardiogeriatrics

Cardiogeriatrics or geriatric cardiology deals with the cardiovascular   diagnosis and management of heart disease in the elderly population. As the population ages, an increasing number of elderly people will develop cardiovascular diseases and will suffer their consequences. Cardiac disorders such as coronary heart disease and others are common and are a major cause of mortality in elderly people. Vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and peripheral arterial disease cause significant morbidity in aged people. Cardiovascular disease at elderly age is superimposed on the cardiovascular changes of aging, most of which underlie many common disorders of aging and limit the physiologic compensatory mechanisms for disease.

CVD is also usually more hazardous in older patients. It often erupts with multiple simultaneous CVD processes (e.g., acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation) and in combination with non-cardiac pathologies (e.g., pneumonia, renal insufficiency, anemia, chronic lung disease, diabetes, stroke). Such multisystem disease combinations are more liable to overwhelm the diminished CV reserve capacity of aging, thus leading to adverse outcomes.