[Characteristics of mild hypertension in elderly patients]

Prevalence of mild hypertension is approximately 40% in 70 years or older. Stratification of risk for evaluation of the prognosis indicates that the risk for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases increases with accumulation of risk factors even in moderate hypertensive patients. Elderly patients already have one of risk factor, that is, age. Therefore, complication of more than one of risk factors such as smoking, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, obesity, microalbuminuria, and family history of premature cardiovascular diseases indicates that cardiovascular risk is moderate or high risk even though their category of blood pressure is mild level. Although number of current smoker and obesity decreases in elderly subjects, prevalence of these risks is still 30%. Prevalence of obesity and diabetes mellitus is similar between mild hypertension and moderate hypertension. HYVET (hypertension in the very elderly) indicates that moderate and severe hypertension should be aggressively treated even those patients are 80 years or older, but evidence of antihypertensive treatment has not been clarified.