title: The role of diabetes and aging in the determinism of hypertension and the related cerebrovascular complications.
abstract: Epidemiological studies carried out on a large sample (3191 elderly and 640 centenarians) with identical criteria and applying the actual diagnostic standards, have evidenced a high, statistically significant prevalence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) (18.84%) in the elderly, as compared to the centenarians (7.50%). This aspect is correlated with the major frequency of maturity onset diabetes in elderly (MODE), compared to the centenarians, correlated also to the mortality of diabetes mellitus (DM) of long duration. The DMT2 and the aging interact in the determinism of vascular alterations, i.e., of the hypertension, and related cardio-cerebrovascular complications. The most frequently occurring hypertension in both the elderly and centenarians was always the systolic-isolated one. The prevalence of hypertension and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was statistically significantly higher in diabetics, compared to the normoglycemic patients, in both the elderly and the centenarians. In addition, in a group of 914 elderly patients, being diabetics or normoglycemic at the start of the studies, but having neither AMI nor stroke at the baseline studies, after 5 years, these complications were more prevalent, significantly in statistical terms, in the diabetic subjects, compared to the normoglycemic ones. The increase of life-span causes an increase of the age when the aging phenomena appear, resulting in that the equal-age elderly people today are of better clinical conditions, compared to the previous periods. The increased life span with a consequent progressive aging of the population causes a worse general clinical state of the elderly population, characterized by polypathologies, frailty, and appearance of cognitive deficits or incapabilities for performing manual or instrumental activities.
authors.affiliation: Research Center The Great Senescence, University of Catania, Cannizzaro Hospital, Via Messina, 829, I-95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malaguarnera
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vacante
authors.forename: Paola Mariangela
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Frazzetto
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Motta
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence