Lower extremity performance measures predict long-term prognosis in older patients hospitalized for heart failure.

Background: In older heart failure (HF) patients, survival depends on the severity of their cardiac condition and on their functional status. Lower extremity performance, assessed with the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), predicts survival in older persons, both in epidemiologic and clinical settings. We evaluated whether SPPB predicts long-term survival in older subjects hospitalized for HF, independent of traditional measures of HF severity.

Subtle neurological abnormalities as risk factors for cognitive and functional decline, cerebrovascular events, and mortality in older community-dwelling adults.

Background: Subtle, but clinically detectable, neurological abnormalities (SNAs) are associated with impaired physical performance in elderly persons without overt neurological diseases. We investigated whether SNAs were prospectively associated with cognitive and functional status, death, and cerebrovascular events (CVEs) in older community-dwelling individuals.

Methods: In participants without history of stroke, parkinsonism and dementia, or cognitive impairment, a score (N(SNA)) was obtained by summing SNAs detected with a simple neurological examination.