Attitudes and approaches to decision making about antihypertensive treatment in elderly patients.

Objective: Optimal antihypertensive therapy in very old subjects requires their understanding and acceptance. We investigated elderly patients' willingness to accept antihypertensive therapy and their desire for information and for participation in medical decisions.

Methods: After standardized explanations about hypertension and its treatment, 120 patients (mean age 83.

Telomere length and ApoE polymorphism in mild cognitive impairment, degenerative and vascular dementia.

Background: Clarifying the aetiology of dementia is of crucial importance in the management of patients as well as for research purposes but it is not always possible clinically. Therefore the identification of biological markers should complement clinical approaches. Telomere shortening is emerging as an important mechanism in vascular aging and the pathogenesis of hypertension and atherosclerosis.

Telomere length is not predictive of dementia or MCI conversion in the oldest old.

The contribution of telomere shortening to the onset of certain age-related diseases, such as dementia, and its role as a predictor of cognitive impairment remain unclear. We tested these hypotheses by analyzing telomere length in 449 inpatients in a large cohort of the oldest old (mean age 85 years) followed up yearly. No significant difference in telomere length was observed between cognitively normal patients (205), demented patients (195; 82 mixed dementia, 77 Alzheimer's disease and 21 vascular dementia) and patients (49) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).