Physiology in the elderly patient - implications for the emergency physician

For administrative and epidemiologic purposes, persons aged over 61 are con sidered as "elderly". The percentage of the western population being 65 yea rs of age and older is steadily increasing. It is important to realize that physiologic or functional age is not always in correspondance with the chr onologic one. Aging is a progressive, universally prevalent physiologic pro cess that produces measurable changes in the structure and decremental alte ration in the function of virtually all tissues and organs. Since cardiovas cular disorders account for one-half or more of all the mortality in the ge riatric subpopulation the analysis of changes in cardiovascular function is crucial in emergency medicine.