Changes in peripheral blood pressure with normal and accelerated aging

Abstract

Aging represents an important risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nevertheless, the question arises: How immutable is age as a risk factor? Can we make a distinction between physiologic or successful arterial aging, which may be immutable, and accelerated, pathologic arterial aging—frequently referred to as early vascular aging (EVA)—which is not? Indeed, blood pressure (BP) components that change over time are useful metrics for assessing and comparing physiologic versus pathologic aging. Because EVA often starts in adolescence, while CVD events may not appear until middle-age or beyond, there is a potential opportunity to attenuate pathological aging with early and effective lifestyle and/or therapeutic intervention