[Risks for a good life in old age-Importance of selected dimensions of living conditions].

Background: Life situation dimensions, such as financial resources, housing, health and social relationships, have a significant influence on the scope available to older people for coping with everyday life and participation and thus for a good life in old age.

Method: As a basis for identifying current and future challenges posed by precarious living conditions in old age, current publicly available data and study results on the income situation, housing, health and care are reported as central dimensions of the living conditions of people aged 65 years and over in Germany.

Results: The study results presented provide indications as to which groups of older people live in particularly precarious living situations, which provide starting points for municipal action.

[Paraneoplastic hyperleukocytosis in lung cancer].

Paraneoplastic leukocytosis in solid tumors is associated with poor prognosis. While mild leukocytosis is common, paraneoplastic hyperleukocytosis is extremely rare. The case of a 73-year-old male diagnosed with an adenocarcinoma of the lung and a peak white blood cell count of 178,000/µl is reported.

A Case-Crossover Analysis of Indoor Heat Exposure on Mortality and Hospitalizations among the Elderly in Houston, Texas.

Background: Despite the substantial role indoor exposure has played in heat wave-related mortality, few epidemiological studies have examined the health effects of exposure to indoor heat. As a result, knowledge gaps regarding indoor heat-health thresholds, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity persist.

Objective: We evaluated the role of indoor heat exposure on mortality and morbidity among the elderly ( of age) in Houston, Texas.

Navigating care in rural areas: Strategies employed by older adults with continuing care needs and their impact on social exclusion.

The literature recognizes the great diversity of care arrangements among rural-dwelling older people. However, little is known about the complex relationships between spatial, social and infrastructural characteristics of place and the strategies that older people develop to navigate care. Even less is known about how navigating care impacts social exclusion from the perspective of older adults themselves.

Sensory deafferentation modulates and redistributes neurocan in the rat auditory brainstem.

Introduction: Cochlear ablation causing sensory deafferentation (SD) of the cochlear nucleus triggers complex re-arrangements in the cellular and molecular communication networks of the adult mammalian central auditory system. Participation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in these processes is not well understood.

Methods: We investigated consequences of unilateral SD for the expression and distribution of the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans, neurocan (Ncan) and aggrecan (Agg), alongside various plasticity markers in the auditory brainstem of the adult rat using immunohistochemical techniques.

[Benefits of supported holidays for the stabilization of domestic nursing arrangements].

Background: Situations where people with dementia are cared for at home are associated with a range of stresses and burdens for all involved, potentially endangering the entire arrangement. This article describes the results from the ESPRIT project (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health from April 2016 to March 2018). The research investigated whether supported holidays for people receiving care and their carers (so-called tandems) positively influence the stability of home-based care arrangements.

Extensive green roof CO exchange and its seasonal variation quantified by eddy covariance measurements.

The CO surface-atmosphere exchange of an unirrigated, extensive green roof in Berlin, Germany was measured by means of the eddy covariance method over a full annual cycle. The present analysis focusses on the cumulative green roof net ecosystem exchange of CO (NEE), on its seasonal variation and on green roof physiological characteristics by applying a canopy (A-g) model. The green roof was a carbon sink with an annual cumulative NEE of -313gCOmyear, equivalent to -85gCmyear.

[Assistance, nursing and participation in old age : Future of domestic care in cases of care dependency].

The future development of home care services for older people in need of care is associated with great challenges. This article begins with a brief summary of the most urgent care problems from the perspective of people requiring care and that of caring relatives. The problems exhibit social and spatial inequalities and are characterized by coordination problems within a fragmented organizational system.

[GPs' Views on Barriers and Preconditions for Referring Elderly People with Depressive Disorder to Psychotherapy].

Objective: Older people with depressive disorders access psychotherapy less frequently than younger ones. GPs play an important role in referring patients, particularly the elderly, to psychotherapeutic treatment. This paper presents the obstacles to and preconditions for referring older, depressed sick people to psychotherapy from the point of view of GPs.

["Gender-specific needs of nursing home residents" : Focus on personal hygiene].

Background: Residential nursing homes are specialized in dealing with people in need of care and are required to respect their dignity and right to self-determination. This includes the respectful handling of gender-specific needs and wishes of residents. Personal hygiene is one important area to which this applies.

Surface energy balance of an extensive green roof as quantified by full year eddy-covariance measurements.

Green roofs are discussed as a promising type of green infrastructure to lower heat stress in cities. In order to enhance evaporative cooling, green roofs should ideally have similar Bowen ratio (β=sensible heat flux/latent heat flux) characteristics such as rural sites, especially during summer periods with high air temperatures. We use the eddy-covariance (EC) method to quantify the energy balance of an 8600m extensive, non-irrigated green roof at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Germany over a full annual cycle.

[Improving Structures for Healthy and Self-Determined Ageing in an Urban District].

Between 2007 and 2010 the Institut für Gerontologische Forschung e.V. investigated the "Primary Prevention Effects of the Märkisches Viertel Network" in the Berlin district "Märkisches Viertel".

[Self-determination of elderly persons with care needs: three case reports on individual and environmental resources of elderly persons].

The project Neighbourhood examined the opportunities for self-determination of older people with care needs and their social, spatial, and individual requirements. This article is based on three case reports on women from lower social milieus living on their own. The case reports show on which individual resources women relay in their everyday life and which environmental conditions help to enable or limit self-determination.

[Self-determination and organisation of care in domestic care arrangements].

For provision of care to be successful, receivers of care have to be involved in the decisions concerning their domestic care arrangement. Focused interviews of 27 people receiving care, as well as their domestic carers and, where applicable, professional nursing staff were used to investigate how the specific attitudes and resources of economic, social and cultural capital in the different social milieus influence self-determination and organisation of domestic care. Interviews were conducted in both eastern and western Germany.

[Training of communication skills in stationary long care homes--the evaluation of a model project to develop communication skills and transfer it into practice].

The training of communication skills of professional caregivers in six homes for elderly people has been developed and evaluated in a model project. The purpose of the project was to strengthen the staff's orientation towards the residents, their needs, handicaps and abilities. Therefore, a series of 8 in-house training courses as well as procedures to establish the contents of the program into daily care-giving (transfer) have been developed and implemented with six teams during one year.

Local treatment of hemorrhoidal disease and perianal eczema. Meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of an Escherichia coli culture suspension alone or in combination with hydrocortisone.

The objective of this paper was to assess the available clinical data on the efficacy and safety of ointments containing either a bacterial culture suspension (BCS) from Escherichia coli or a combination of BCS with hydrocortisone (CAS 50-23-7) (BCS: Posterisan, and BCS + HC: Posterisan forte). The BCS is assumed to act by immunomodulation in hemorrhoidal disease and perianal eczema. Six randomized, double-blind trials are reported: three of them using BCS ointment and one using BCS + HC, against ointment base, and two trials using BCS + HC against hydrocortisone ointment alone.

[Pharmacokinetics of theophylline. Repeated single evening administration of Pulmo-Timelets slow-release capsules in comparison with theophylline slow-release tablets].

In an open randomized cross-over study involving a total of 12 healthy male subjects (mean age: 29 years), the pharmacokinetic profile of Pulmo-Timelets was compared with that of a theophylline controlled-release tablet (each administered at a dose of 600 mg theophylline in the controlled-release form) in the steady state after saturation with a single evening application over 4 days. The relative bioavailability of Pulmo-Timelets vis-a-vis the reference preparation referred to the area under the curve (AUC) in the 24-hour dosage interval, revealed a figure of 82%. Here, the reduced AUC manifested in particular in the absence of concentration peaks associated with a tendency towards somewhat higher plasma concentration 24 hours after administration.

Efficacy and tolerance of flupirtine and pentazocine in two multicentre trials.

Flupirtine, a non-opioid central analgesic of a new chemical class, was compared to pentazocine in multicentre trials enrolling a total of 1174 patients with pain due to various causes. Treatment was given, depending on the indication, for between 3 days and 8 weeks. For both drugs rectal as well as oral medication was used.

Gated blood pool scintigraphy as a tool for non-invasive measurements of left ventricular function.

Gated Blood Pool Scintigraphy (GBPS), i.e. the noninvasive evaluation of ventricular performance following the administration of radionuclides as intravascular tracers has had a major impact on many aspects of cardiology and has proven its clinical value and reliability in the past years.

[Function scintigraphy of the heart in patients with heart valve diseases].

In 58 patients suffering from either stenosis or insufficiency of a single heart valve, gated blood pool scintigraphy was performed to determine the ejection fraction as well as the peak filling and peak ejection rates. It could be demonstrated that in patients with valvular disorders the ejection fraction was only moderately decreased, generally remaining in the lower reference range. The peak filling and ejection rates showed no pathologic changes with the exception of patients with aortic regurgitation where these rates were significantly decreased.