As our population ages and more elderly patients present to their GPs with cardiovascular problems, automatic referral to a specialist is no longer practicable nor preferable in many instances. Instead much more emphasis is now placed on the family practitioners role in diagnosing and evaluating cardiac disease and managing symptoms and therapies in partnership with the patient and other primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare professionals. Critical to the success of this approach is the ability of family practitioners to identify accurately those patients who require referral and those who can be safely managed in their own practices. This book focuses on these questions and provides an invaluable reference for the overriding principles of managing elderly patients with cardiovascular disease.