Blood pressure elevations in hospital.

Long-term hypertension control in the community significantly reduces cardiovascular risk. However, the benefit of controlling acute elevations of blood pressure in hospitalised patients is unclear. In-hospital elevations of blood pressure are relatively common and might not reflect poorly controlled blood pressure before admission.

Incorporating pharmacokinetic data into personalised prescribing for older people: challenges and opportunities.

Purpose: We discuss the known age-associated changes in drug metabolism and elimination, the potential use of this information when selecting specific therapeutic strategies in older patients, and the steps required to fill the knowledge gap in this field.

Methods: We conducted a narrative review that encapsulates the current knowledge regarding the main age-associated changes in drug metabolism and elimination and discusses their possible inclusion in current and future personalised prescribing tools for the older patient population.

Results: Despite some progress in this field, the lack of specific information regarding the impact of frailty, pharmacogenomics, and drug-drug, drug-disease, and organ-organ interactions, particularly in subjects > 80 years, currently prevents the routine incorporation of pharmacokinetic data, barring measures of renal function, into personalised prescribing tools.