Hemostatic and inflammatory markers as risk factors for coronary disease in the elderly.

Inflammation has been recognized as an integral component of atherothrombotic disease, and inflammatory markers are strongly related to future cardiovascular disease risk in elderly men, and to a certain extent in elderly women. The association is complicated by the prevalence of hormone replacement therapy among older women, and the variety of the underlying vascular disease. For fatal events, inflammation markers exhibit a time-to-event dependency in the elderly that has not been noted to the same degree in younger people. Hemostatic markers that represent inflammatory processes or coagulation activation also predict future risk in older individuals, but there is little evidence for associations between cardiovascular disease risk and ambient levels of coagulation or fibrinolytic factors. (c)2002 CVRR, Inc.