The value of clinical characteristics from a standard questionnaire to discriminate cardiac from neurological syncope in the elderly.

Objectives: To identify signs and symptoms to differentiate cardiac from neurological syncope in patients over 70 using a standardized questionnaire.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Five short-stay units in a French university hospital.

Clinical presentation of hypernatremia in elderly patients: a case control study.

Objectives: To assess early clinical signs and their prognostic value in elderly patients with hypernatremia.

Design: Prospective, case control study of 150 patients with hypernatremia matched to 300 controls.

Setting: Multicenter study including seven short- and long-term geriatric care facilities.

[Pulmonary infections among the elderly living in institutions: prevention].

Pneumonia amongst elderly people living in institutions is common and is a frequent cause of mortality and hospital admission. It is important to distinguish between prevention of viral pneumonia, which primarily consists of influenza vaccination programmes, and prevention of bacterial pneumonia. Prevention of influenza infection in institutions requires the vaccination of as many as possible of both residents and caregivers.

[Normocytic anemia in the elderly. Should the cause of anemia systematically investigated independently of hemoglobin concentration?].

Unlabelled: In clinical practice the will to find out the cause of normocytic anemia (NA) in elderly patients is preferentially based on individual physician's background rather than on objective data such as their hemoglobin level. However, it could be postulate that this clinical performance depends on this "cut off" of hemoglobin (more this value is decreased more it could be easy to find the cause of anemia). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the number of cases with defined cause of NA (after a standardized procedure) and the level of hemoglobin.