title: Hypertension in the elderly.
abstract: TREATMENT OF ELDERLY HYPERTENSIVES: Treatment of hypertension in the elderly is nowadays an accepted and highly effective medical intervention following the positive reports on the benefits of lowering elevated arterial pressure in elderly patients. Most of the intervention studies an antihypertensive treatment in elderly patients have used diuretics or beta-blockers or the two in combination as the therapy by which blood pressure was lowered. However, from a theoretical point of view, novel therapies such as calcium antagonists could offer advantages that would translate into an even greater reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than has been obtained with the traditional antihypertensive therapies used so far. DATA ON CALCIUM ANTAGONISTS IN THE ELDERLY: Some of the studies in elderly hypertensives that are currently in progress are using calcium antagonists as one of the main therapies, e.g. the Swedish Trial in Old patients with hypertension (STOP-Hypertension)-2 study and the Systolic hypertension in Europe (Syst-Eur) study. Another source of information is a large database on nicardipine, a dihydropyridine-derived calcium antagonist, used in the treatment of elderly hypertensives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hansson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents