Healthy vascular aging is possible
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Arterial stiffening is not an inevitable part of aging and did not occur in 18% of 3,196 men and women aged 50 and older participating in certain cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study, according to a report published online May 30 in Hypertension.

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The most reassuring finding of Niiranen et al. is that healthy vascular aging can be achieved. It can even be found in the elderly, albeit much less commonly than among adults in their 50s and 60s.

The clinical consequences of these findings are not yet clear, and we don’t yet know what to advise patients who have healthy vascular aging. But this study paves the way for research into protective factors, not just risk factors, for CVD.

Future research in this area will not only improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of vascular disease but also will offer new predictive, diagnostic, and therapeutic tools.
 

Gemma Currie, MD, and Christian Delles, MD, are at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Their work is supported by the British Heart Foundation and the European Commission, and they reported having no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Currie and Dr. Delles made these remarks in an editorial accompanying Dr. Niiranen’s report (Hypertens. 2017 May 30. doi: 10.1161/hypertensionaha.117.09122).

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The most reassuring finding of Niiranen et al. is that healthy vascular aging can be achieved. It can even be found in the elderly, albeit much less commonly than among adults in their 50s and 60s.

The clinical consequences of these findings are not yet clear, and we don’t yet know what to advise patients who have healthy vascular aging. But this study paves the way for research into protective factors, not just risk factors, for CVD.

Future research in this area will not only improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of vascular disease but also will offer new predictive, diagnostic, and therapeutic tools.
 

Gemma Currie, MD, and Christian Delles, MD, are at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Their work is supported by the British Heart Foundation and the European Commission, and they reported having no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Currie and Dr. Delles made these remarks in an editorial accompanying Dr. Niiranen’s report (Hypertens. 2017 May 30. doi: 10.1161/hypertensionaha.117.09122).

Body

 

The most reassuring finding of Niiranen et al. is that healthy vascular aging can be achieved. It can even be found in the elderly, albeit much less commonly than among adults in their 50s and 60s.

The clinical consequences of these findings are not yet clear, and we don’t yet know what to advise patients who have healthy vascular aging. But this study paves the way for research into protective factors, not just risk factors, for CVD.

Future research in this area will not only improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of vascular disease but also will offer new predictive, diagnostic, and therapeutic tools.
 

Gemma Currie, MD, and Christian Delles, MD, are at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Their work is supported by the British Heart Foundation and the European Commission, and they reported having no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Currie and Dr. Delles made these remarks in an editorial accompanying Dr. Niiranen’s report (Hypertens. 2017 May 30. doi: 10.1161/hypertensionaha.117.09122).

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Healthy vascular aging is possible
Healthy vascular aging is possible

 

Arterial stiffening is not an inevitable part of aging and did not occur in 18% of 3,196 men and women aged 50 and older participating in certain cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study, according to a report published online May 30 in Hypertension.

 

Arterial stiffening is not an inevitable part of aging and did not occur in 18% of 3,196 men and women aged 50 and older participating in certain cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study, according to a report published online May 30 in Hypertension.

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Key clinical point: Arterial stiffening is not an inevitable part of aging and did not occur in 18% of 3,196 men and women aged 50 years and older participating in certain cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study.

Major finding: The prevalence of healthy vascular aging was 18% overall, 30.3% in people aged 50-59 years, 7.4% in those aged 60-69 years, and 1% in those aged 70 years and older.

Data source: A secondary analysis of data accumulated for 3,196 adults participating in the 1998-2001, the 2005-2008, the Offspring, and the Third-Generation cohorts of the Framingham Heart Study.

Disclosures: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes’s Framingham Heart Study, the National Institutes of Health, and Boston University supported this work. Dr. Niiranen reported having no relevant financial disclosures; one of his associates reported owning Cardiovascular Engineering Inc., which develops and manufactures devices to measure vascular stiffness, as well as having ties to Merck, Novartis, Philips, and Servier.