[Epidemiology, etiopathogenesis and clinical significance of arterial hypertension among elderly people].

A division of arterial hypertension, the criteria of its diagnosing, the incidence rate among elderly people and pathological mechanisms leading to the occurrence of this disease, paying particular attention to the mechanisms causing the development of isolated systolic arterial hypertension--the form being typical for this age group of people, have been presented. The clinical significance of arterial hypertension consists in developing a series of organic changes that finally lead to circulatory insufficiency, coronary heart disease, ictus, and renal failures. The degree of progression of those changes depends on many factors, including the patient's age. Both a large number of evidence of harmfulness of hypertension and advantages arising out of its therapy indicate that in elderly people this affection cannot be treated as a physiological feature generated by the time-related intensification of degenerative and sclerotic processes, but it must be considered as an important prognostic factor. In particular, it regards not only an elevated value of the diastolic pressure, but chiefly an increase in systolic pressure that reflects better a risk of affections of the cardiocirculatory system in elderly people.