One Reply to “Vote: is high blood pressure a normal part of aging or pathology”
Hypertension is a disease and should be treated… even in the very elderly. As you know this was looked at in the NEJM May 2008. Nearly 4000 pts were randomized to treatment or placebo. Treating patients with HTN age >80 led to statistically significant decreases in the risk of stroke, death from stroke, all cause mortality, CHF….
I think it is semantics whether hypertension in this age group is called a disease, condition, pathological process… I never stop treating hypertension… regardless of age.
Hypertension is a disease and should be treated… even in the very elderly. As you know this was looked at in the NEJM May 2008. Nearly 4000 pts were randomized to treatment or placebo. Treating patients with HTN age >80 led to statistically significant decreases in the risk of stroke, death from stroke, all cause mortality, CHF….
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/358/18/1887
I think it is semantics whether hypertension in this age group is called a disease, condition, pathological process… I never stop treating hypertension… regardless of age.