MILAN, Italy – Early Vascular Aging (EVA) is commonly found in patients who have diabetes, hypertension or other atherogenic risk factors. So said Peter M Nilsson, MD PhD, Professor of Clinical Cardiovascular Research at Lund University in Malmö, Sweden, during the European Meeting on Hypertension here.
In an interview after he took part in a teaching session on: Hypertension And Other Risk Factors he said: “If you have patients that you see every day who look old before their chronological age, and if they have stiff arteries and increased pulse pressure, they are really at risk, and you should treat them!”
Dr Nilsson recommended that doctors should check for raised pulse pressure to identify EVA among these patients, because it is correlated with arterial stiffness: “I think every GP has the experience of sometimes meeting patients, and you don’t believe what you see because they look much older compared to what is written in their medical records,” he said.
Genetic and also lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking, poor diet and stress may all play a part in making such individuals age prematurely, Dr Nilsson noted. And he recommended offering these patients prompt help to reduce the underlying atherosclerosis with the help of ADAM.