Antithrombotic therapy in the elderly: expert position paper of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Thrombosis

Contemporary medicine is shifting towards person rather than disease-oriented care.1With increasing life expectancy and the ageing of baby boomers, the proportion over 60 years is growing faster than the overall population, with worldwide estimates reaching 2 billion by 2050 (http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ worldageing19502050).2 In parallel, acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and atrial fibrillation (AF)—the most frequent indications for dual platelet inhibition or anticoagulation—occur mostly in older patients.2 – 6 There is general agreement that people ≥75 years can be defined ‘elderly’; however, cutoffs as low as 65 years have been applied to important clinical datasets and risk scores.3,7 – 10