Publications by authors named "Aline Mendes"

Article Synopsis
  • Dementia, particularly with severe behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD), greatly affects quality of life and is a main cause of death in older adults; this study looked at factors predicting mortality in these patients.
  • Over 4 years, 32.5% of 508 participants with severe BPSD died, with non-survivors generally being older, more likely male, and showing greater symptom severity and lower cognitive and functional capabilities at the start.
  • Key mortality predictors identified were male sex, older age at diagnosis, higher BPSD severity scores, lower cognitive function, worse daily living capabilities, and lower quality of life, while the use of antidepressants was linked to a reduced mortality risk.
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Article Synopsis
  • Dupuytren's disease (DD) is a hand disorder influenced by genetic and environmental factors, impacting the extracellular matrix (ECM) with significant structural changes.
  • The study identified key alterations in ECM components, specifically an increase in certain disaccharides and a rise in versican levels, while decorin levels declined as the disease advanced.
  • Findings suggest that specific proteoglycans and changes in collagen structure could serve as potential biomarkers for tracking DD progression, with noted decreases in urinary glycosaminoglycan excretion indicating a broader systemic effect.
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Objectives: This report aimed to describe mortality at 18 months in older survivors of the first wave of COVID-19.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting And Participants: Patients aged ≥65 years hospitalized for COVID-19 in the acute geriatric wards of 2 centers.

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Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a clinical challenge for the lack of a sound taxonomy, frequent presentation with comorbid BPSD, lack of specific pharmacologic interventions, poor base of methodologically sound evidence with randomized clinical trials, contamination from the treatment of behavioural disturbances of young and adult psychiatric conditions, and small efficacy window of psychotropic drugs. We present here a treatment workflow based on a concept-driven literature review based on the notions that (i) the aetiology of BPSD can be mainly neurobiological (so-called 'primary' symptoms) or mainly environmental and functional ('secondary' symptoms) and that this drives treatment; (ii) the clinical efficacy of psychotropic drugs is driven by their specific profile of receptor affinity; (iii) drug treatment should follow the rules of 'start low-go slow, prescribe and revise'. This article argues in support of the distinction between primary and secondary BPSD, as well as their characteristics, which until now have been just sketchily described in the literature.

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Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) bring complexity in the clinical management of people with dementia; therefore, it is important to evaluate different models of care, such as Special Care Units (SCU-B).∥Objective:To evaluate the SCU-B effectiveness toward alleviating BPSD and improving the quality of life (QoL) of patients and their caregivers.∥Methods:ReCAGE was a multicenter, controlled, longitudinal study where 508 patients with BPSD were enrolled in two cohorts: 262 patients from centers endowed with a SCU-B, and 246 from centers without SCU-B.

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Delirium is a commonly encountered syndrome in clinical practice. Older people with cognitive disorders are most at risk of developing delirium during the hospital stay. However, the risk of underdiagnosis is significant, particularly because of the overlap of behavioral symptoms and cognitive impairment between delirium and dementia.

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Objectives: Endodontic treatment is one of the most fearful procedures among dentistry, and the use of music during the procedure has been evaluated to control patients' anxiety. This systematic review has been conducted to provide a synthesis of the state of knowledge in this field and aimed to answer the following question: "Can music therapy reduce patient's state anxiety during endodontic treatment?".

Methods: A search was performed in six electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Open Gray) for articles published until April 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • Two COVID-19 outbreaks in Switzerland in 2020 led to changes in treatment approaches based on new medical evidence, with a study focusing on patient outcomes during these waves.
  • A total of 2,983 hospitalized patients were analyzed, finding similar in-hospital mortality rates between the first wave (16.3%) and the second wave (16.0%), but notable differences in ICU admissions and treatments used.
  • During the second wave, fewer patients were admitted to the ICU but had higher mortality rates; corticosteroids became the main treatment compared to previous use of medications like hydroxychloroquine, leading to a 25% reduction in mortality risk overall during the second wave.
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Background: Dementia is a priority for global public health. The management of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is one of the highest ongoing challenges and needs new approaches. The special care unit for people with dementia and BPSD (SCU-B) is viewed in this context as a further medical intervention.

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This study aimed to evaluate the influence of ultrasonic activation (UA) on the physicochemical properties of hydraulic calcium silicate-based sealers. Nine experimental conditions were created based on the hydraulic calcium silicate-based sealers (Bio-C Sealer, Sealer Plus BC and Bio Root RCS) and the ultrasonic activation (no activation [NA], 10 seconds, and 20 seconds). Then the experimental groups were BC-NA, BC-10, BC-20, SPBC-NA, SPBC-10, SPBC-20, BR-NA, BR-10, and BR-20.

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Platelet aggregation has been associated with COVID-19 pathogenesis. In older patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, we aimed to investigate the association between aspirin use before admission and the risk of in-hospital all-cause mortality. We performed a retrospective international cohort study in five COVID-19 geriatric units in France and Switzerland.

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Background: We investigated the prognostic significance of visceral and subcutaneous adiposity in octogenarians with COVID-19.

Methods: This paper presents a monocentric retrospective study that was conducted in acute geriatric wards with 64 hospitalized patients aged 80+ who had a diagnosis of COVID-19 and who underwent a chest CT scan. A quantification of the subcutaneous, visceral, and total fat areas was performed after segmentations on the first abdominal slice caudal to the deepest pleural recess on a soft-tissue window setting.

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Background: It is uncertain whether antibiotic therapy should be started in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia. We aimed to investigate the association between early antibiotic therapy and the risk of in-hospital mortality in older patients.

Methods: We performed a retrospective international cohort study (ANTIBIOVID) in 5 coronavirus disease 2019 geriatric units in France and Switzerland.

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: The disease caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) is asymptomatic, silent, and progressive liver disease. In HCV-infected patients the increase in serum HA is associated with the development of hepatic fibrosis and disease progression. : HCV-RNA detection was performed in all serological samples of blood donors that tested positive using HCV Ultra ELISA.

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Background & Aims: To investigate the association of nutritional risk at admission with the length of hospital stay (LOS) and mortality in older patients with COVID-19.

Methods: Retrospective monocentric study in an acute geriatric hospital. Data were collected after an extensive review of medical records and the nutritional risk was assessed according to the Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS).

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Background: Mechanisms and causes of death in older patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are still poorly understood.

Methods: We conducted in a retrospective monocentric study, a clinical chart review and post-mortem examination of patients aged 75 years and older hospitalized in acute care and positive for SARS-CoV-2. Full body autopsy and correlation with clinical findings and suspected causes of death were done.

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Purpose: Assess the individual and combined diagnostic value of amyloid-PET and tau-PET in a memory clinic population.

Methods: Clinical reports of 136 patients were randomly assigned to two diagnostic pathways: AMY-TAU, amyloid-PET is presented before tau-PET; and TAU-AMY, tau-PET is presented before amyloid-PET. Two neurologists independently assessed all reports with a balanced randomized design, and expressed etiological diagnosis and diagnostic confidence (50-100%) three times: (i) at baseline based on the routine diagnostic workup, (ii) after the first exam (amyloid-PET for the AMY-TAU pathway, and tau-PET for the TAU-AMY pathway), and (iii) after the remaining exam.

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Background: Delirium prevalence increases with age and is associated with poor outcomes. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for delirium in older patients hospitalized with COVID-19, as well as its association with length of stay and mortality.

Method: This was a retrospective study of patients aged 65 years and older hospitalized with COVID-19.

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Background: Stroke in the course of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been shown to be associated with more severe respiratory symptoms and higher mortality, but little knowledge in this regard exists on older populations. We aimed to investigate the incidence, characteristics, and prognosis of acute stroke in geriatric patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Methods: A monocentric cross-sectional retrospective study of 265 older patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on acute geriatric wards.

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Objectives: To determine the prevalence, localization and associations of cerebral microbleeds (CMB) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) with its core clinical symptoms and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We hypothesize DLB patients with CMB have increased amyloid burden compared to those without CMB, which could also translate into clinical differences.

Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional analysis from the AlphaLewyMA study (https://clinicaltrials.

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The aims of this study were to evaluate the physical and chemical properties, cytotoxicity and dentinal tubule penetration of a new calcium silicate-based root canal dressing. For pH and calcium ion release evaluation (1, 24, 72 and 168 h) were used a pH meter and colorimetric spectrophotometer, respectively. Radiopacity evaluation followed the ISO 6876:2012.

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The older patients have been the most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In addition, this infection has been responsible for high mortality rate in this population. In this article we wanted to describe the clinical findings we encountered in older people with COVID-19 and share some of the issues and challenges we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Objective: To determine predictors of in-hospital mortality related to COVID-19 in older patients.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting And Participants: Patients aged 65 years and older hospitalized for a diagnosis of COVID-19.

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Introduction: Health professionals are constantly exposed to occupational accidents. In this context, standard precautionary measures (PP) were established, designing biosafety standards at all stages of care, but several factors influence low adherence.

Objective: To evaluate the adherence of nursing professionals working in emergency services to standard precautionary measures.

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