Introduction Cardiovascular Ageing

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. In this section of the book, we will focus on CVD related to atherosclerosis, to valvular heart disease and to heart failure. Cardiovascular diseases remain the biggest cause of deaths worldwide, though over the last two decades, cardiovascular mortality rates have declined in many high-income countries but have increased at an astonishingly fast rate in low- and middle-income countries. On the basis of 2008 mortality rate data, more than 2,200 Americans die of CVD each day, an average of 1 death every 39 s (Roger et al. 2012).