Managing the elderly patient with hypertension: current strategies, challenges and considerations.

This article also discusses the clinical trials on treatment of hypertension in the elderly, the 2018 European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension hypertension guidelines, and the treatment of hypertension and of resistant hypertension in the elderly. For elderly adults with hypertension and a high burden of comorbidities and limited life expectancy, clinical judgment, patient preference, and a team-based approach to assess risk/benefit is reasonable for decisions about the intensity of SBP lowering and the choice of antihypertensive drugs to use for treatment. Randomized clinical trials need to be performed in frail elderly patients with hypertension living in nursing homes. Elderly frail persons with prevalent and frequent falls, marked cognitive impairment, and multiple comorbidities requiring multiple antihypertensive drugs also need to be included in randomized clinical trials. Data on patients older than 85 years treated for hypertension are also sparse. These patients need clinical trial data. Finally, the effect of different antihypertensive drugs on clinical outcomes including serious adverse events needs to be investigated in elderly frail patients with hypertension and different comorbidities. PMID: 32066287 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy - Category: Cardiology Tags: Expert Rev Cardiovasc Ther Source Type: research