Hypertension in the Elderly [antikvár]

Foreword The twelfth volume in this series is on 'Hypertension in The Elderly', i.e. in people over 60 years of age. The concept of the Handbook of Hypertension developed in the late 1970s from a widespread feeling that the diversity of interests and inputs into hypertension research did not lend themselves to publication in a single textbook. The Handbook is recognized as an authoritative source of information and reviews on clinical and research aspects of high blood pressure. It has now come of age in more than one sense in this volume which considers the problems of hypertension in the aged. The scope of hypertension in man has developed over the last 30 years from the short-term care of a small number of hospitalized patients with severely elevated blood pressure and extensive»target-organ failure to a major long-term community-health problem involving a substantial proportion of the population. It appeared possible at one time that the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension could be identified by a limited number of circumscript and straightforward experiments in laboratory animals. This is clearly not so. The field of experimental hypertension has, if anything, expanded even more than clinical practice. We shared with our Publishers the view that the accumulation of biological and clinical knowledge in the field of hypertension had outgrown the limitations of the classical monograph. Moreover, the subject of hypertension by its very nature is a multidisciplinary one, attracting such diverse professionals as biochemists and public health workers, in addition to clinicians. When one tries to envisage what would happen to a single all-encompassing book, it is clear that it could never satisfy the different groups involved in high blood pressure. Some sections would become outdated rapidly while others would have a longer lifespan. An alternative, to escape from the constraints of a single textbook and to reconcile the interests of both generalists and specialists, was to choose the format of a serial handbook. The series as it stands has resulted from lengthy discussions with clinicians and scientists. We believe that it will be of interest to many dilferent groups including clinical investigators, house officers, general practitioners, pharmacologists, pharmacists, biological scientists, physiologists and epidemiologists. The present volume addresses the topic of Hypertension in The Elderly. With an aging population and a very high prevalence of hypertension and vascular disease in people over 60 years of age, the timing is appropriate. This volume presents a comprehensive review of the field, including aging and the circulation, the epidemiology of hypertension in the elderly, treatment alternatives based on drug and non-drug approaches, and the results of major intervention trials. Titles of further volumes currently in preparation are; Management of the Hypertensive Patient (Editors: F.R. Buhler and J.H. Laragh) xi