Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly / Edition 1

by Franz H. Messerli

Overview

After a certain age, one is elderly, aged, venerable, and patriarchal. Or just plain old. When I became old, I did not know it. I do know it now because of a syndrome of which I had previously been unaware. It is quite simple-when it hurts, it works; when it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work! Writing about the old is a preoccupation of the young, and that is as it should be because it is the young who must carry the burden of the old. I don't know the average age of the contributors to Franz Messerli's book, but I would guess it to be less than 50, which to me is positively pubescent! For many years I thought geriatric medicine was nonsense, and today I still think some of it is. What changes with age are principally the attitude and purposes of the individual and how much energy he or she has to carry out those purposes. It isn't so much that the goals, ambitions, and desire to alter or improve the world disappear; they just diminish along with what it takes to accomplish them. Which brings me to one particular aspect of aging, that is, the cardiovascular system. The first evidence of the cardiovascular system's aging is the failure of the heart to respond to the demands placed on it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780898385960
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	02/29/1984
Series:	Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine , #31
Edition description:	1984
Pages:	347
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Older People and Cardiovascular Illness.- 2. Epidemiology.- 3. Pathophysiology of the Aging Heart and Circulation.- 4. Clinical Findings in the Elderly Heart Patient.- 5. Diagnostic Testing for Cardiovascular Diseases.- 6. Heart Failure.- 7. Hypertension.- 8. Disturbances of Cardiac Rhythm.- 9. Heart Block/Cardiac Pacing.- 10. Postural Hypotension and Syncope.- 11. Valvular Heart Disease in the Elderly.- 12. Coronary Artery Disease.- 13. Acute Myocardial Infarction.- 14. Diseases of the Myocardium, Pericardium, and Endocardium.- 15. Diseases of the Aorta and Arterial Tree.- 16. Cardiac Manifestations of Noncardiac Disease.- 17. Psychological Adaptation to Cardiovascular Disease.- 18. Ethical Considerations.- 19. Risk Modification.- 20. Dietary Considerations in the Elderly: Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease.- 21. Exercise and Rehabilitation in Elderly Cardiac Patients.- 22. Medical Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease.- 23. Interventional Cardiology.- 24. Surgery in the Aged.- 25. Cardiac Transplantation in Older Patients: Changing Perspectives.

Editorial Reviews

' Virtually every primary care physicians's library would be enhanced by the wealth of information presented in this book. '
W.M. Kirkendall in The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol.320 No.7, Feb. 1989.

From the Publisher