Hypotensive Drugs and Syncope Due to Orthostatic Hypotension in Older Adults with Dementia (Syncope and Dementia Study).

Objectives: To determine whether hypotensive drugs may play a pivotal role in inducing orthostatic hypotension (OH)-related syncope.

Design: Prospective, observational, multicenter study.

Setting: Acute care wards, syncope units, and centers for the diagnosis of dementia.

Etiology of Syncope and Unexplained Falls in Elderly Adults with Dementia: Syncope and Dementia (SYD) Study.

Objectives: To investigate the etiology of transient loss of consciousness (T-LOC) suspected to be syncope and unexplained falls in elderly adults with dementia.

Design: Prospective, observational, multicenter study.

Setting: Acute care wards, syncope units or centers for the diagnosis of dementia.

The "syncope and dementia" study: a prospective, observational, multicenter study of elderly patients with dementia and episodes of "suspected" transient loss of consciousness.

Background And Aim: Syncope and related falls are one of the main causes and the predominant cause of hospitalization in elderly patients with dementia. However, the diagnostic protocol for syncope is difficult to apply to patients with dementia. Thus, we developed a "simplified" protocol to be used in a prospective, observational, and multicenter study in elderly patients with dementia and transient loss of consciousness suspected for syncope or unexplained falls.

Unexplained Falls Are Frequent in Patients with Fall-Related Injury Admitted to Orthopaedic Wards: The UFO Study (Unexplained Falls in Older Patients).

To evaluate the incidence of unexplained falls in elderly patients affected by fall-related fractures admitted to orthopaedic wards, we recruited 246 consecutive patients older than 65 (mean age 82 ± 7 years, range 65-101). Falls were defined "accidental" (fall explained by a definite accidental cause), "medical" (fall caused directly by a specific medical disease), "dementia-related" (fall in patients affected by moderate-severe dementia), and "unexplained" (nonaccidental falls, not related to a clear medical or drug-induced cause or with no apparent cause). According to the anamnestic features of the event, older patients had a lower tendency to remember the fall.

Two-year morbidity and mortality in elderly patients with syncope.

Background: syncope is a common cause of hospitalisation in the elderly. However, morbidity and mortality in elderly patients with syncope is not well established.

Methods: two-hundred and forty-two patients older than 65 years consecutively referred to the participating centres for evaluation of transient loss of consciousness were enrolled in a multicentre 2-year longitudinal observational study.

Role of early symptoms in assessment of syncope in elderly people: results from the Italian group for the study of syncope in the elderly.

Objectives: To assess the ability of specific early symptoms to predict cardiac and noncardiac syncope in elderly people.

Design: Multicenter cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: Inpatient geriatric acute care departments and outpatient clinics.

Diagnosis and characteristics of syncope in older patients referred to geriatric departments.

Objectives: To test the applicability and safety of a standardized diagnostic algorithm in geriatric departments and to define the prevalence of different causes of syncope in older patients.

Design: Multicenter cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: In-hospital geriatric acute care departments and outpatient clinics.

[A double blind randomised clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the treatments of the superficial pressure sores].

In spite of the progresses of knowledge and care, pressure sores continue to be a clinically relevant problem. A double blind randomised controlled trial was organised to assess the efficacy of triticum vulgaris (Fitostimoline) vs placebo in the re-epithelisation of superficial pressure sores. Patients with stage NPUAP II or superficial pressure sores, with an expected survival of more than 3 months and eligible for a follow-up up to 8 weeks were included, over a period of 2 years in 46 clinical sites.

[Ticlopidine-induced aplastic anemia. A case report and review of the literature].

Ticlopidine, an inhibitor of platelet aggregation, is widely used for peripheral arterial disease. The use of this drug has been associated with neutropenie and other adverse hematologic effects. Aplastic anemie is a rate complication that carries high mortality.