Arterial Hemodynamics in Aging Populations. From genes to clincial practice

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the number one leading cause of death globally and estimations showed that the number of people, who will die of cardiovascular disease, will increase in the coming years. Large part of cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by reducing the absolute risk by addressing multiple cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet, obesity, diabetes mellitus, raised lipids and hypertension. In this thesis, we will focus on the age related changes of the vascular tree in relation to cardiovascular disease. First, we will discuss a number of general principles of the hemodynamic system and the influence of advancing age. Second, we will explain general principals of genetic analyses. Third, we will describe the clinical consequences from the age related vascular changes and genetic analyses. Lastly, we describe the scope of this thesis.