Description

A large proportion of a Geriatrician’s work lies in the cardiovascular domain, so I have taken the opportunity in this edition to bring together a quartet of articles with a broadly cardiac or vascular flavour. These papers on hypertension, acute stroke, heart failure and syncope will enable the reader to catch up with some of the recent developments, and the information offered is of immediate practical use in our day to day work. We also have two contributions on respiratory system topics. The importance of tuberculosis in old age should not be underestimated, not least because of the potential for curative treatment. Margot Gosney’s paper draws our attention to another contentious issue: lung cancer is not being managed as well as it should be in elderly people despite evidence that early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention can confer benefits. I hope you enjoy these and the other high quality reviews in this edition.

Readers will notice the change in the style of the Journal; the author photographs have been dropped from the layout. This new style has been adopted for all the journals in the CME series, after consultation with the editors. I strongly agree with this decision. The CME/CPD journals are rapidly gaining a reputation for the depth and usefulness of their content, so a somewhat more serious looking product is now in order.

I would like to ask readers to send in appropriate short cases containing a pertinent educational message. These are always popular with readers, good fun, and help to fill gaps between the main reviews. Picture quizzes, unusual ECGs and atypical presentations of common conditions are particularly welcome.

As before, I would like to receive as much feedback as possible on the Geriatric Medicine CME Journal and any suggestions you might have for future developments.

Stephen Allen
Editor