Relationship between vascular wall stiffness and geriatric status in older adults with orthostatic hypotension

Abstract

RELEVANCE. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of death worldwide. Predicting the future occurrence of CVD remains a serious problem in medicine. In recent decades, progressive and exponential population aging has led to an increase in the prevalence of frailty syndrome (FS) and other geriatric syndromes (GS), one of which is orthostatic hypotension (OH). Frailty syndrome and OHsignificantly reduce the quality of life of older people. The relationships between them remain unclear. With vascular wall aging, arterial elasticity and carotid baroreceptor sensitivity to blood pressure (BP) changes decrease. Blood pressure regulation mechanisms are impaired, which leads to orthostatic reactions. Measurement of vascular wall stiffness (VWS) allows predicting future cardiovascular events, regardless of age or other CVD risk factors. However, data on arterial stiffness in the group of patients with FS are limited.