Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2021; 116(6): 1037-1038
What to Expect from Cardiovascular Life at 85?
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Prognostic Value of Plasma NT-proBNP levels in Hospitalized Patients Older than 80 Years of Age in a Hospital in Beijing, China".
While there is plenty of literature for risk prediction of cardiovascular disease and preventive therapies, risk estimates are less well known for patients aged > 80 years. There is a need to address this gap in knowledge, as the health status of very elderly people will increasingly impact on health care.
A detailed study carried out in Beijing by Zhu et al., published in this journal, describes the 5-year risk of cardiovascular disease in 724 very elderly Chinese patients – all > 80 years old, most of them men. They were admitted to the geriatric cardiology department, something that is an evolving field at the international level. The reasons for hospital admission were mostly related to coronary artery disease and hypertension control; only a few were admitted for respiratory or digestive tract disease. After a median follow-up of 5.3 years and a follow-up rate of 98%, about 50% of the patients died, most of them from infections and only 1 in 16 patients from a cardiac cause. The study shows that cardiovascular morbidity and all-cause mortality risk in this population can be successfully predicted by the N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels (NT-proBNP).
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