Relationship between Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Frailty among Elderly who are Asymptomatic for Cardiovascular Diseases

Abstract

There is a general agreement that the core feature of frailty is increased vulnerability due to impairments in multiple, inter-related systems resulting in homeostatic reserve disturbance. There exists a relation between frailty and CVD; frailty may lead to CVD, just as CVD may lead to frailty. The relation may also be collinear, because these entities share common biologic pathways. This study was conducted to assess the correlation between frailty and cardiovascular risk factors (high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP), abdominal aortic diameter (AAD), carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), ankle brachial index (ABI) and cardiovascular function) among elderly subjects who are asymptomatic for cardiovascular diseases. In this cross-sectional study 90 elderly participants were recruited from the inpatient wards and outpatients clinics in Ain Shams University Hospital. They were divided according to Fried criteria of frailty into: non-frail, pre-frail and frail groups. We excluded patients complaining from any symptom of cardiovascular diseases, patients with an acute illness in the last 3 months that may influence CRP level, and those who refused to participate in the study.