Resumen

One of the great achievements of the twentieth century was a dramatic increase in life expectancy. In fact, during the period of 1900/1902 to 2011, life expectancy increased from 48 to 76 years in white males and from 51 to 81 years for white females in developed countries such as the USA, whereas the total deaths per 1,000 population decreased from 17.2 to 8.0 during the same period (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html). Although this may tell us that we are on the road to immortality, the resulting economic impact on society of this rise in life expectancy can not be underestimated, not only for the increased government spending in the time of pension, but also for the alarming rise in cost and, consequently, increased spending on health care. In Part II of the thematic issues on “Aging and Disease” of this journal, several important aspects on this topic are extensively reviewed and discussed by experts in the field, including the relationship of Alzheimer’s disease with abnormalities in glucose metabolism, the problem of frailty and sarcopenia in the elderly, which the author of the review rightly called “new geriatric giants”, the important topics of aging and kidney transplantation and pulmonary fibrosis, and the diseases associated with immunosenescence. The issue closes with an original article presenting the results of a secondary longitudinal analysis of the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study on the value of frailty indices to predict adverse outcomes in the elderly population. We hope that the information contained in the collection of articles presented in Parts I and II of these thematic issues will be useful to the readers of our journal and that the topics discussed promote research on this transcendental area. The Editors of Revista de Investigación Clínica –Clinical and Translational Investigation– and the Guest Editors of these thematic issues want to express their appreciation to the authors for their efforts and time invested to achieve this important journal’s task as well as for providing contributions in a timely fashion.

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2016-04-28   |   517 visitas   |   Evalua este artículo 0 valoraciones

Vol. 68 Núm.2. Marzo-Abril 2016 Pags. 52 Rev Invest Clin 2016; 68(2)