Advancing healthcare through thoracic ultrasound research in older patients.

This paper reports the proceedings of a meeting convened by the Research Group on Thoracic Ultrasound in Older People of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics, to discuss the current state-of-the-art of clinical research in the field of geriatric thoracic ultrasound and identify unmet research needs and potential areas of development. In the last decade, point-of-care thoracic ultrasound has entered clinical practice for diagnosis and management of several respiratory illnesses, such as bacterial and viral pneumonia, pleural effusion, acute heart failure, and pneumothorax, especially in the emergency-urgency setting. Very few studies, however, have been specifically focused on older patients with frailty and multi-morbidity, who frequently exhibit complex clinical pictures needing multidimensional evaluation.

Asymptomatic Aortic Stenosis in an Older Patient: How the Geriatric Approach Can Make a Difference.

We present a case report of an older patient with aortic stenosis who was managed before and after transcatheter aortic valve implantation by a team of cardiologists but without the support of a geriatrician. We first describe the patient's post-interventional complications from a geriatric perspective and afterwards, discuss the unique approach that the geriatrician would have provided. This case report was written by a group of geriatricians working in an acute hospital, along with a clinical cardiologist who is an expert in aortic stenosis.

Guillain-Barré syndrome AMSAN variant in a 90-year-old woman after COVID-19: a case report.

Background: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an inflammatory disease of the peripheral nervous system characterized by rapidly evolving polyneuropathy caused by autoimmune demyelination and/or axonal degeneration. Since SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, several GBS cases following exposure to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in literature, raising the concern of the latter being a potential trigger event for GBS.

Case Presentation: We report the case of a 90-year-old Caucasian woman who was admitted to our hospital because of fatigue, worsening gait and leg strength, dysphonia, dysarthria and dysphagia, started 3 weeks after being exposed to COVID-19.

Prevalence, clinical correlates, and burden of undiagnosed aortic stenosis in older patients: a prospective study in a non-cardiologic acute hospital ward.

Background: The epidemiology of aortic stenosis (AS) in older patients admitted to non-cardiologic acute hospital wards and the effect of AS on mid-term survival are incompletely reported. In a cohort of very old patients admitted to an acute geriatric unit (AGU), we aimed to assess: (1) the prevalence of newly and previously diagnosed AS; and (2) the association between AS severity and patients' 6-month mortality.

Methods: The patients consecutively admitted in two AGU rooms from February 2016 to February 2018 were assessed with echocardiography and AS severity was defined according to standard criteria.

Duration of postoperative delirium is an independent predictor of 6-month mortality in older adults after hip fracture.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between number of days with delirium and 6-month mortality in elderly adults after hip fracture surgery.

Design: Prospective cohort study with 6-month follow-up.

Setting: Orthogeriatric Unit (OGU).

Geriatric multidimensional assessment for elderly patients with acute respiratory diseases.

The case of an 87-year-old woman who falls at home and is admitted to the Emergency Department of an acute hospital with delirium exemplify a common situation that physicians face in their everyday clinical practice. We describe the typical context of frailty in which acute illnesses frequently present in frail elderly patients and, in particular, the relationship between comorbidity, disability and frailty. We also report the current knowledge about frailty theories and we focus on the "atypical" presentation of many acute illnesses.

The sequential organ failure assessment score predicts 30-day mortality in a geriatric acute care setting.

Background: Several tools to predict patients' survival have been proposed in medical wards, though they are often time consuming and difficult to apply. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) is a promising tool that has been validated in intensive care units but never in acute medical wards. The aim of this study was to assess whether the SOFA score predicts short-term (30 days) mortality in a population of elderly patients admitted to a geriatric ward.