Cognitive Impairment in People Living with HIV and the Impact of Mood: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study.

: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection represents a significant public health concern and, consequently, the incidence of HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND) has grown over the years. The present study aims to assess HAND with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to find significant associations with cognitive impairment. : The study included 210 PLWHA, aged from 30 to 81 years, of whom, 137 (65.

Association between Depressive Mood, Antidepressant Therapy and Neuropsychological Performances: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study on Elderly Patients.

Background: Currently, the global demographic landscape is undergoing a transformative shift towards an increasingly aging population. This leads to an increase in chronic pathologies, including depression and cognitive impairment. This study aimed to evaluate the association between depressive mood, whether in treatment or not, and cognitive capacities, assessed using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS).

Diabetes mellitus, malnutrition, and sarcopenia: The bond is not explained by bioelectrical impedance analysis in older adults.

As people age, their risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) and sarcopenia increases due to the decline in muscle mass and strength. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a method used to detect changes in body composition. The primary aim of the study was to determine the distribution of BIA variables among a group of non-DM people and two groups of patients with controlled and uncontrolled DM.

Six-item cognitive impairment test (6-CIT)'s accuracy as a cognitive screening tool: best cut-off levels in emergency department setting.

Background: Nowadays, elderly patients represent a significant number of accesses to the Emergency Department (ED). Working rhythms do not allow to perform complete cognitive analysis, which would, however, be useful for the health care. This study aims to define the optimal cut-off values of the six-item Cognitive Impairment Test (6-CIT) as a cognitive screening tool in ED.

Orthogeriatric Assessment of the Elderly Patient with Fragility Hip Fracture: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Study.

Nowadays, more studies deal with "OrthoGeriatrics", for the co-management of elderly patients suffering fractures, from the admission to the discharge and beyond. For the first time at Cagliari University Hospital, we introduced an orthogeriatric service, in which trained geriatricians stay in orthopedic unit alongside trained orthopedics. The primary aim of the study was to analyze the rate of death and rehospitalization in elderly femur-fractured people of 65 or more years of age, identifying possible predictive factors.

Physical Performance and Falling Risk Are Associated with Five-Year Mortality in Older Adults: An Observational Cohort Study.

: Falls in older people have a significant impact on public health. The scientific literature has provided evidence about the necessity for older adults to be physically active, since it reduces the incidence of falls, several diseases, and deaths, and can even slow down some effects of aging. The primary aim of our study is to identify if physical performances and risk of falling are related to 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year mortality.

STOPP/START Anti-aggregation and Anticoagulation Alerts in Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is common in the elderly. A key component of AF management is Oral Anticoagulant Therapy (OAT), consisting of Vitamin K Antagonists (VKAs) or Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs). The aim of the present study is to check, using STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons' Prescriptions)/START (Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment) Criteria, if such drugs are potentially inappropriately prescribed/omitted in an elderly population with AF, and to determine their impact on mortality.

Anemia in Elderly Patients-The Impact of Hemoglobin Cut-Off Levels on Geriatric Domains.

Background: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of anemia—according to the WHO criteria—on cognitive performances, mood, functional and nutritional status, and comorbidities in a population of subjects aged 65 years or older. The secondary aim of this study was to understand if different hemoglobin cut-off levels are associated with a variation of the mentioned domains’ impairment. Methods: We designed a cross-sectional study, including subjects aged 65 or more consecutively evaluated in an outpatient setting from July 2013 to December 2019.

Mini-Mental State Examination: Optimal Cut-Off Levels for Mild and Severe Cognitive Impairment.

Considering the need to intercept neurocognitive damage as soon as possible, it would be useful to extend cognitive test screening throughout the population. Here, we propose differential cut-off levels that can be used to identify mild and severe cognitive impairment with a simple and widely used first-level neurocognitive screening test: the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). We studied a population of 262 patients referred for cognitive impairment testing using the MMSE and Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), a neuropsychological battery.

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: Application and correlations in a real-life cross-sectional study.

Background: The assessment process of elderly people considers all aspects of an individual's life, including physical, mental, and social aspects. Frailty refers to a decline in physiological functions or strengths leading to increased vulnerability to stressors and decreased ability to cope with them. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is a validated and useful tool in this context to holistically study elderly people.

Nutritional Status and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Elderly.

(1) Background: The association between polypharmacy and malnutrition has been investigated in several studies; however, few of these specifically deepened the relationship between potentially inappropriate medication and malnutrition. With a descriptive approach, the primary aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of the nutritional status, assessed with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), on potentially inappropriate medications (PIM), estimated 10-year survival, and the risk of adverse drug reactions in elderly patients; the secondary aim was to evaluate how the Screening Tool of Older People’s Prescriptions (STOPP), Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START), and BEERS 2019 criteria identify PIM compared to nutritional status. (2) Methods: In this study, 3091 subjects were enrolled, of whom 2748 (71.

The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status as a screening strategy for HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders.

HIV-infected people are at risk for neurocognitive impairment (HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders - HAND). To evaluate whether the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), a widely used neurocognitive screening tool, could be a valid instrument for HAND identification, we evaluated 166 HIV-infected subjects. Our results showed that 96 (57.

How to evaluate Quality of Life.

In medical terminology, it has become more and more common the use of the expression "Quality of Life" (QoL) to define a series of aspects that go beyond the traditional, clinical and "objective" evaluation of the medical intervention. The attention to QoL comes from the need to find tools that are able to reveal important aspects of the life of the patient that cannot be measured by a laboratory exam and/or a radiological procedure. The QoL is measured through multidimensional questionnaires on, at the very least, the domains of physical, psychological and social health.

Resting-state functional connectivity MRI analysis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C Virus co-infected subjects. A pilot study.

Background And Purpose: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection's role on cognitive impairment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients is still debated and functional neuroimaging evaluation on this matter is lacking. To provide further insight about HCV's neuro-effects on HIV associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), we performed a pilot resting state (RS) functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) study to find eventual functional connectivity alteration that could reflect HCV related cognitive performance degradation.

Methods: Eighteen patients (8 HIV, 10 HIV + HCV), either impaired or not impaired, were assessed with RS fcMRI.

The venous thromboembolic risk and the clot wave analysis: a useful relationship?

Background: Hospitalized patients with acute medical conditions have higher venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk. A patient with a final Padua Prediction Score (PPS) of ≥4 is considered to be at high risk for VTE. The aim of this study was to investigate on a possible relationship between PPS, the dynamics of the clot formation, i.

Cognitive Impairment and Age-Related Vision Disorders: Their Possible Relationship and the Evaluation of the Use of Aspirin and Statins in a 65 Years-and-Over Sardinian Population.

Neurological disorders (Alzheimer's disease, vascular and mixed dementia) and visual loss (cataract, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy) are among the most common conditions that afflict people of at least 65 years of age. An increasing body of evidence is emerging, which demonstrates that memory and vision impairment are closely, significantly, and positively linked and that statins and aspirin may lessen the risk of developing age-related visual and neurological problems. However, clinical studies have produced contradictory results.

Age-related macular degeneration and cognitive impairment show similarities in changes of neutral lipids in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Starting from previous studies showing that patients with cognitive deficit present neutral lipids (NLs) accumulation in cytoplasm of their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and considering that there is epidemiological evidence linking age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to cognitive deficit, the first purpose of this study was to test whether neutral lipids also accumulated in PBMCs from AMD subjects. Moreover, the impact of statin use on AMD was explored and whether such use in AMD subjects was associated with NLs accumulation in PBMCs. The study was conducted on 222 subjects: 136 AMD (36 of which - 26.

Mononuclear cells in dementia.

According to the World Health Organization statistics, dementias are the largest contributors to disease burden in advanced market economies, and the leading cause of disability and dependence among older people worldwide. So far, several techniques have been developed to identify dementias with reasonable accuracy while the patient is still alive, however, no single of them has proven to be ideal, especially if you need to have a satisfactory early diagnosis. Studies of early onset dementia are largely limited by the inaccessibility to direct examination of the living human brain: it appears therefore that for a correct biochemical and molecular characterization of dementias, potential surrogate tissues must be identified.

Cognitive decline and depressive symptoms in late-life are associated with statin use: evidence from a population-based study of Sardinian old people living in their own home.

Objectives: This study was designed to provide further insights into the effects of dyslipidemia (Dys-y) and use of statins (St-y) on cognitive functions and mood in older people.

Methods: Three hundred and twenty-nine subjects aged > or = 65 years were screened for cognitive dysfunction using mini mental state examination (MMSE). The geriatric depression scale (GDS) was used to detect depression.

Cholesterol esterification as a mediator of proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells during atherogenesis.

Background/aims: We determined growth rates, cholesterol esterification and mRNA levels for caveolin-1 (Cav-1), neutral cholesterol esters hydrolase (n-CEH) and ATP-binding cassette transporter (ABCA-1), in quiescent and growth-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and intimal vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from blood and primary atherosclerotic plaques, respectively. These cells were cultured in the presence or absence of the mTOR inhibitor 40-O-(2-hydroxyethyl) rapamycin (RAD).

Methods: The rate of cell proliferation was determined by 3H-thymidine incorporation into DNA and that of lipid metabolism by utilizing 14C-acetate and 14C-oleate as precursors.