Comprehensive complexity assessment as a key tool for the prediction of in-hospital mortality in heart failure of aged patients admitted to internal medicine wards.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) and cognitive impairment are both common problems in old age, associated with significant mortality, impaired quality of life and disability. This study evaluated patients with CHF, admitted to internal medicine and geriatric wards. We identified factors associated with a high risk of in-hospital mortality.

Conversion of mild cognitive impairment to dementia in elderly subjects: a preliminary study in a memory and cognitive disorder unit.

Prevalence and incidence of predementia syndromes vary as a result of different diagnostic criteria, as well as different sampling and assessment procedures. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is thought to be a prodromal phase of dementia and therefore highly predictive of subsequent conversion. The aim of our study was to investigate the risk of conversion to dementia for different MCI subtypes diagnosed according to standardized and recently revised criteria (amnestic; impairment of memory plus other cognitive domains; nonamnestic).

Plasma lactoferrin as a marker of infection in elderly individuals.

To assess lactoferrin as a marker of infection, plasma lactoferrin (LF) levels were determined in elderly in patients with infection and compared with age- and sex-matched healthy and hospital controls and young healthy blood donors. The median LF level in infection (800 ng/mL) was significantly higher than in healthy elderly living in old people's home (300 ng/mL) or elderly hospital controls (298 ng/mL) (p less than 0.01 in each case).

Incidence of pulmonary embolism in elderly patients newly admitted to an acute geriatric unit: a prospective study.

To study the incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE) in elderly patients newly admitted to an acute geriatric unit, the authors carried out ventilation perfusion scans on 33 patients, 25 women and 8 men, mean age 79 years, consecutively admitted to the geriatric wards. The first scan was done within 5 days of admission and repeated between days 10 and 20. Where possible, patients with a positive second scan had a repeat scan at 2-3 months.

Circulating neutrophil elastase in infectious diseases in geriatric patients.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been used to measure elastase proteinase inhibitor complex (EPIC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the elderly, with and without infection. Median EPIC levels in the elderly with infection, hospital controls, healthy elderly residents in old people's homes and healthy blood donors were 300, 104, 96 and 74 ng/ml respectively. Ninety-five per cent of the patients with infection had EPIC levels well above the normal range.