[Clinical approach to inflammatory syndromes in the aged]

Primary care physicians have often to provide care to elderly patients presenting with non specific general complaints such as anorexia, weight loss and fatigue associated with biological inflammatory tests (increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, increased CRP, anemia of inflammatory origin). In elderly patients, inflammatory diseases of unknown origin are most often related to an infectious illness (particularly bacterial endocarditis or tuberculosis), a systemic autoimmune disorder (temporal arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica or ANCA positive vasculitis) or a neoplastic process. A methodological clinical approach is discussed and the most valuable complementary tests are proposed.