Cardiac risk factors: still important in the elderly.

Shown to be associated with new coronary events in elderly men and women are cigarette smoking, systolic or diastolic hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, low serum HDL cholesterol, increased ratio of serum total cholesterol to serum HDL cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, physical inactivity, increased age, prior coronary artery disease, and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy. The greater the number of major coronary risk factors, the higher the incidence of new coronary events. Risk factor modification should therefore be considered in elderly persons.