The Nexus Between Telomere Length and Lymphocyte Count in Seniors Hospitalized With COVID-19.

Profound T-cell lymphopenia is the hallmark of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). T-cell proliferation is telomere length (TL) dependent and telomeres shorten with age. Older COVID-19 patients, we hypothesize, are, therefore, at a higher risk of having TL-dependent lymphopenia.

A Mechanism for Severity of Disease in Older Patients with COVID-19: The Nexus between Telomere Length and Lymphopenia.

Background: Lymphopenia due to a plummeting T-cell count is a major feature of severe COVID-19. T-cell proliferation is telomere length (TL)-dependent and TL shortens with age. Older persons are disproportionally affected by severe COVID-19, and we hypothesized that those with short TL have less capacity to mount an adequate T-cell proliferative response to SARS-CoV-2.

Improvement of decision-making criteria for the care of elderly cancer patients by general practitioners (Lorraine, France).

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify changes in the decision-making criteria of general practitioners (GPs) concerning the care of elderly cancer patients after 1 year of corrective measures for care practices in the Lorraine region, France.

Materials And Methods: In 2014, a postal mail questionnaire was sent to all GPs in the Lorraine region. This questionnaire was designed to identify GPs' decision-making criteria.

Decision making affecting care of older people with cancer: a comparison between general practitioners and oncologists in Lorraine.

The main objective of this study is to identify the decision criteria of general practitioners and oncologists in the management of older patients with cancer in Lorraine. The secondary objectives are to identify the difficulties encountered and to propose solutions to improve health path of these patients. 2,995 post mail questionnaires were sent to all general practitioners and oncologists in Lorraine.

Effect of Multimorbidity on Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults Aged 55 Years or Older: Results from the SU.VI.MAX 2 Cohort.

Introduction: Multimorbid chronic diseases are usually considered separately in trials. Here, we aimed to describe overall multimorbidity patterns in adults aged 55 years or older and assess their effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: We used data for 5,647 participants included in the SUpplémentation en VItamines et Minéraux AntioXydants 2 (SU.

[Antiphospholipid syndrome in nephrology. Kidney damage and practical aspects of the management].

The antiphospholipid syndrome is a thrombophilia characterized by the combination of arterial and/or venous thrombotic events or obstetric clinical events, associated with persistent presence of antiphospholipid antibodies. In this syndrome, thromboses may affect all of the vascular tree, renal damage is frequently associated with a specific antiphospholipid syndrome nephropathy. We propose in this review to provide updated recommendations on the management of antiphospholipid syndrome in nephrology.

Correlation between peripheral blood pressure and pulse-wave velocity values in the institutionalized elderly persons 80 years of age and older: the PARTAGE study.

Background: Carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (PWV) provides a comprehensive noninvasive indication of arterial stiffness, and is now established as a strong marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The correlation between peripheral blood pressure (BP) and PWV and their respective influences on mortality have been poorly studied in the elderly. Our objective was to analyze this correlation in nursing-home residents over 80 years of age, with the view that the results of this could ultimately be helpful in implementing strategies for the diagnosis and long-term follow-up of CVD and mortality in the very elderly population.

[Home delivered meals: impasse or solution?].

Undernutrition is common in elderly people living at home. A loss of autonomy can lead them to use home help services, such as home delivered meals. However this solution is not always effective and having meals brought to the home seems to aggravate their isolation, as the results of a survey of twenty people showed.

[Place and characteristics of patients older than 85 managed by mobile palliative care team; a retrospective study].

The objectives of this study was to specify the place of the patients older than 85 in the activity of the Mobile health unit of the Hospital of Metz-Thionville, to determine their characteristics and to show possible care differences as compared with younger patients. This is a retrospective study concerning all the patients seen by the Mobile health unit in 2006 and 2007. The patients older than 85 represent 11% of the 652 patients followed by the Unit and 7.

Mortality and cardiovascular events are best predicted by low central/peripheral pulse pressure amplification but not by high blood pressure levels in elderly nursing home subjects: the PARTAGE (Predictive Values of Blood Pressure and Arterial Stiffness in Institutionalized Very Aged Population) study.

Objectives: The aim of the longitudinal PARTAGE study was to determine the predictive value of blood pressure (BP) and pulse pressure amplification, a marker of arterial function, for overall mortality (primary endpoint) and major cardiovascular (CV) events, in subjects older than 80 years of age living in a nursing home.

Background: Assessment of pulse indexes may be important in the evaluation of the CV risk in very elderly frail subjects.

Methods: A total of 1,126 subjects (874 women) who were living in French and Italian nursing homes were enrolled (mean age, 88 ± 5 years).

[Frailty in older population: a brief position paper from the French society of geriatrics and gerontology].

Frailty in the older population is a clinical syndrome which evaluate a risk level. The Frailty syndrome defines a reduction of the adaptation capacity to a stress. It can be modulated by physical, psychological and social factors.

Health-related quality of life in French adolescents and adults: norms for the DUKE Health Profile.

Background: The continual monitoring of population health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with validated instruments helps public health agencies assess, protect, and promote population health. This study aimed to determine norms for the French adolescent and adult general population for the Duke Health Profile (DUKE) questionnaire in a large representative community sample.

Methods: We randomly selected 17,733 French people aged 12 to 75 years old in 2 steps, by households and individuals, from the National Health Barometer 2005, a periodic population study by the French National Institute for Prevention and Health Education.

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor: a new link among arterial stiffness, pulse pressure, and coagulation in postmenopausal women.

Objective: To investigate in women older than 60 whether aortic stiffness or pulse pressure (PP) is associated with selected procoagulant or anticoagulant factors and to examine whether pulsatile stretch influences these factors in human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in vitro.

Methods And Results: Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and carotid PP were studied in 123 apparently healthy postmenopausal women. PWV, PP, von Willebrand factor, and free tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), but not mean arterial pressure, increased with age.

Attitudes and approaches to decision making about antihypertensive treatment in elderly patients.

Objective: Optimal antihypertensive therapy in very old subjects requires their understanding and acceptance. We investigated elderly patients' willingness to accept antihypertensive therapy and their desire for information and for participation in medical decisions.

Methods: After standardized explanations about hypertension and its treatment, 120 patients (mean age 83.

A simple clinical scale to stratify risk of recurrent falls in community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older.

Background: Correct identification of people at risk for recurrent falls facilitates the establishment of preventive and rehabilitative strategies in older adults.

Objective: The purposes of this study were: (1) to develop and validate a simple clinical scale to stratify risk for recurrent falls in community-dwelling elderly people based on easily obtained social and clinical items and (2) to evaluate the added value of 3 clinical balance tests in predicting this risk.

Design: This was a prospective measurement study.

Blood pressure and pulse wave velocity values in the institutionalized elderly aged 80 and over: baseline of the PARTAGE study.

Objective: The aim of the longitudinal study PARTAGE (predictive values of blood pressure and arterial stiffness in institutionalized very aged population) was to determine the predictive value of blood pressure (BP) and arterial stiffness for overall mortality, major cardiovascular events and cognitive decline in a large population of institutionalized patients aged 80 and over. In the study herein, we present the baseline data values of this study.

Methods: A total of 1130 patients were recruited (878 women), living in French and Italian nursing homes.

Heart rate as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Almost all the epidemiological studies that aimed to answer the question of the relationship between heart rate and all-cause or cardiovascular morbidity and mortality reported that a high heart rate was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events. This relationship has been found to be generally stronger in men than among women. The increase in the cardiovascular risk, associated with the acceleration of heart rate, was comparable to the increase in risk observed with high blood pressure.

Benefits of the RAS blockade: clinical evidence before the ONTARGET study.

Activation of the AT1 angiotensin II (Ang II) receptors has various effects including vasoconstriction, hypertrophy, and possibly hyperplasia of vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes and increase in extracellular collagen matrix synthesis. These actions lead to the development of cardiovascular hypertrophy and fibrosis, as well as arterial stiffness, which are some key factors in the development of the cardiovascular and renal complications. In clinical studies, it has been shown that renin-angiotensin blockade has direct and specific implications in the evolution of heart failure, coronary disease, stroke, and hypertensive and diabetic renal disease.

Pulse wave velocity assessment by external noninvasive devices and phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging in the obese.

Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) is considered the gold-standard measurement of arterial stiffness. Obesity, however, can render inaccurate the measurement of PWV by external noninvasive devices. Phase-contrast MRI allows the determination of aortic PWV in multiple aortic locations with intra-arterial distance measurements, as well as the assessment of aortic mechanical properties.

Mechanisms of antiphospholipid-induced thrombosis: effects on the protein C system.

An acquired resistance to activated protein C (APC) has been demonstrated in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Recent studies report interactions between beta2 glycoprotein I (beta2GPI) and prothrombin-binding antibodies and the protein C system. Some aPL in patients recognize one or more conformational epitopes shared by beta2GPI and catalytic domains of APC.

Clinical determinants of failure in balance tests in elderly subjects.

We assessed the role of clinical and biological parameters on performance in four balance tests in elderly subjects. An observational study was conducted in the Center for Preventive Medicine of Nancy (France) in 2368 community-living elderly subjects aged 60 and older. Body mass index (BMI), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), clock test, "Health score" and use of psychotropic drugs (UPD) were assessed.

Hypercoagulability resulting from opposite effects of lupus anticoagulants is associated strongly with thrombotic risk.

Interference of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) with coagulation was investigated in 40 aPL-patients (24 with thrombosis) using thrombography. Impairment of the activated protein C anticoagulant pathway was partially offset by the genuine anticoagulant effect. The net result, a procoagulant phenotype, was associated with a 7-fold increased risk of thrombosis in aPL-patients.