Coronary heart disease in the elderly: review of current knowledge and research recommendations.

Abstract

The Working Conference on the Recognition and Management of Coronary Heart Disease in the Elderly, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, was designed to review the cumnt state of knowledge about coronary disease as a basis for formulating research goals. Scientists with expertise and interest in coronary heart disease in the elderly, yet with diverse subspecialties and approaches, were invited to present, discuss, and assess what is known about this problem and what can be extrapolated from data collected from younger age populations; and to identify critical gaps in our knowledge that should be considered in establishing future research priorities. Considerable progress has been made since the time when being age 65 years or older constituted a bamer to coronary care unit admission. More recently, however, and more unfortunate, is that the elderly have been systematically excluded from, or at least underrepresented in, most clinical trials of cardiovascular therapies. Although the emphasis of the Conference was recognition and management of coronary heart disease (CHD), perspectives were provided on the pathophysiology and epidemiology essential for understanding the etiology and development of coronary heart disease in the elderly, the magnitude and severity of the problem, and the potential for preventing or ameliorating the course of the disease by modifying constitutional and environmental risk characteristics.