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Aging impacts heart and kidney function, affecting stress adaptability and medication efficacy. New methods estimate kidney function in older adults due to unreliable creatinine levels.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Cardiology
- Nephrology
Context:
- Aging leads to significant functional changes in vital organs, specifically the heart and kidneys.
- Cardiac aging involves anatomical and hemodynamic shifts, including coronary atherosclerosis, impacting left ventricular performance and stress response.
- Kidney aging affects physiological functions, particularly renal clearance, which is crucial for drug efficacy and toxicity.
Purpose:
- To investigate the functional alterations of the heart and kidney during the aging process.
- To explore the clinical consequences of cardiac aging, such as reduced adaptability to stress.
- To examine the physiological consequences of kidney aging, focusing on renal clearance and its implications for pharmacotherapy.
Summary:
- Cardiac aging is associated with anatomical and hemodynamic changes, leading to decreased left ventricular performance and impaired stress adaptability.
- Kidney aging results in altered renal clearance, complicating the assessment of kidney function through blood creatinine levels due to reduced lean mass and dehydration in elderly patients.
- The study proposes methods for estimating creatinine clearance from blood levels to overcome challenges in 24-hour urine collection for elderly individuals.
Impact:
- Highlights the challenges in assessing kidney function in older adults and suggests practical solutions for clinical settings.
- Underscores the importance of understanding age-related organ changes for effective medical treatment and drug management in the elderly.
- Provides insights into the physiological basis of reduced organ function with age, informing geriatric care and research.
Abstract:
Alterations of the function of two essential organs during ageing is studied: the heart and the kidney. Anatomical and hemodynamic alterations secondary to cardiac ageing are considered along with the essential role of coronary atherosclerosis. Clinical consequences because of the decreased performance of the left ventricle ensue, especially a diminution of the adaptability during stress. As far as ageing of the kidney is concerned, physiological consequences are studied, especially the renal clearance which conditions the therapeutic and/or toxic effect of medications. The difficulties of a reliable reflection of the condition of the kidneys by blood creatinin measurements, are demonstrated, because of the diminution of the lean mass and dehydration in elderly patients. Because of the difficulties in collecting 24 hours urine, methods of measurement of the creatinin clearance by estimation from blood creatinin levels are proposed.