Factors predicting rehospitalization of elderly patients in a postacute skilled nursing facility rehabilitation program.

Objective: To examine potential risk factors for rehospitalization of skilled nursing facility (SNF) rehabilitation patients.

Design: Retrospective review of rehabilitation charts.

Setting: SNF rehabilitation beds (n=114) at a 514-bed urban, academic nursing home that receives patients from tertiary care hospitals.

Parkinson's disease without expected neuropathologic abnormality.

A case is reported of an initially 78-year-old man whose presentation and course, closely followed over 10 years by an academic neurologist, were consistent with classic idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), including unilateral onset, obvious cogwheeling, and a very good prolonged response to levodopa/carbidopa (LD/CD). Yet at autopsy, there was no neuronal loss in the substantia nigra nor were there any Lewy bodies or immunochemical evidence of alpha synuclein in the multiple brain structures studied. This case does not support the hypothesis that the use of LD/CD is toxic to the substantia nigra in people.

Regional brain atrophy rate predicts future cognitive decline: 6-year longitudinal MR imaging study of normal aging.

Purpose: To determine if medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy rate, assessed by using an automated procedure over the initial time interval of a 6-year, three-time-point longitudinal study, is predictive of future memory decline.

Materials And Methods: Healthy elderly subjects (age, >60 years) were administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychometric tests and underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at baseline and two or more follow-up examinations. The rate of brain atrophy between the baseline and first follow-up examinations was assessed by using an automated procedure that included spatial coregistration of the two images and regional brain boundary shift analysis.