Age-related changes in arrhythmias and electrophysiologic properties

There are few data on the relationships between age and arrhythmias, except for the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. In clinical practice, the most frequent arrhythmia is the atrial fibrillation (AF). It is well-known, that the prevalence of AF increases with age from 2 to 4% before 70 years up to 9 to 15% in patients older than 80 years. However, it is unknown if the increased prevalence of AF is related to the increase of the cardiac and extracardiac diseases, noted in the elderly, or to atrial electrophysiological changes. Probably, the incidence and mechanism of arrhythmia do not differ between adults and elderly patients when the other clinical data are similar. Arrhythmias in elderly patients represent most of the urgencies, consultations or hospitalizations. They could become more and more frequent because we now know that the management of most of these elderly patients should be identical to that of younger patients. However, the treatment frequently is difficult. The difficulties in elderly patients are due to the associated non-cardiac and cardiac diseases which are more frequent than in adults. Therefore, the quality of management should be particularly careful in elderly patients.