IMR Press / FBL / Volume 27 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2703082
Open Access Review
Circadian Rhythms and Acute Coronary Syndrome in the Elderly
Show Less
1 Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, 28006 Madrid, Spain
2 Cardiology Department, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
*Correspondence: pablo_diez_villanueva@hotmail.com (Pablo Díez-Villanueva)
These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Katarzyna Anna Cieslik
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2022, 27(3), 82; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2703082
Submitted: 11 December 2021 | Revised: 15 February 2022 | Accepted: 16 February 2022 | Published: 5 March 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circadian Rhythms in Health and Disease)
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in Western countries. The incidence, prevalence and mortality rate of acute cardiac events increase with age. Circadian rhythms allow organisms to prepare for their daily fluctuations brought on by day-night cycles, thus playing an important role in the cardiovascular physiology. This can be sometimes a double-edged sword, since exaggerated responses may not be beneficial or may be even harmful in individuals susceptible to adverse acute cardiovascular events. Remarkably, occurrence of such events has been related to a circadian pattern with a peak in the morning hours. Of interest, elderly patients seem to have an increased risk of acute coronary events, especially in the morning, though a bimodal distribution has also been observed. Further studies are required to get more insights on age-related differential circadian patterns in acute coronary syndromes patients.

Keywords
circadian rhythm
acute coronary syndrome
elderly
Figures
Fig. 1.
Share
Back to top