Publications by authors named "Kennelly S"

Background: Falls are frequently reported within the HSE. The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing(TILDA) found that 40% of over 50 s experience a fall in a two year period, with 20% requiring hospital attendance (1). It has been estimated that the cost of injuries related to falls in older people will increase exponentially over the coming years (2).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study explores how a sensory support intervention (SSI) program impacts quality of life in individuals with mild-to-moderate dementia who also have hearing and vision difficulties.
  • Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial across seven clinics in five European countries, evaluating the effectiveness of an 18-week program compared to standard care.
  • The primary outcome measured was changes in health-related quality of life, using the Dementia Quality of Life Instrument (DEMQoL), with a total of 252 participants randomly assigned to either the SSI group or a control group receiving usual care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to explore patient eligibility for lecanemab therapy for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) at a Regional Specialist Memory Clinic, emphasizing the importance of timely treatment in early AD cases.
  • A retrospective analysis was conducted on 188 new patients over a year, assessing their diagnostic data and biomarker status to determine eligibility based on Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) and clinical trial standards.
  • Results showed only 5.9% of the patients were eligible according to AUC, with a higher eligibility rate of 26.2% among those with biomarker positive Alzheimer's, highlighting major barriers like lack of biomarker confirmation and cognitive ineligibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • People with intellectual disability have a higher risk of developing dementia, which often shows different and earlier symptoms than in the general population, complicating diagnosis.
  • There is a need for specialized memory services and reliable biomarkers to improve diagnosis and treatment options for this group, but current research and services are lacking.
  • The underrepresentation of adults with intellectual disabilities in biomarker research could lead to their exclusion from effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, worsening existing health care inequities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Midlife cardiovascular risk factors, like Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and obesity, may lead to cognitive impairment and dementia, with systemic inflammation being a potential link.
  • A study assessed middle-aged individuals with and without uncomplicated T2DM, measuring their cognitive abilities and levels of certain inflammatory markers (like IL-17A) over four years.
  • Results showed that higher levels of IL-17A were correlated with poorer executive function, regardless of T2DM status, suggesting this inflammatory marker may play a role in cognitive decline in midlife.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The estimated prevalence of tracheobronchomalacia (TBM) in children is about 1:2100. Prevalence of intrathoracic malacia is higher in children with chronic lung disease such as bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis (CF) and may contribute to increased morbidity.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and assess clinical features of tracheomalacia (TM), TBM and bronchomalacia (BM) in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gait speed is increasingly recognized as an important health indicator. However, gait analysis in clinical settings often encounters inconsistencies due to methodological variability and resource constraints. To address these challenges, GaitKeeper uses artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) to standardize gait speed assessments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Medications that can cause sedation or have anticholinergic effects pose risks for those with cognitive issues, especially in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), who may experience increased frailty and adverse effects.
  • A study assessed the drug burden in a group of patients with ID who were referred for cognitive evaluation, finding that a majority were on multiple medications, with significant use of sedatives and anticholinergics.
  • Results indicated that individuals with psychiatric comorbidities and certain types of ID had higher drug burden index scores, suggesting a need for careful medication management in this population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Plasma p-tau217 is identified as a promising blood-based marker for detecting Alzheimer Disease (AD) pathology, particularly in memory clinic patients undergoing lumbar punctures.
  • A study involving 108 participants found that plasma p-tau217 levels were significantly higher in those with detected amyloid (Aβ) pathology compared to those without, indicating its strong potential for diagnosis.
  • The analysis showed that plasma p-tau217 had excellent performance metrics for Aβ detection (AUC: 0.91), outperforming other biomarkers and suggesting it could be a reliable tool in Alzheimer's diagnostics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The antiviral enzyme viperin produces ddhCTP, which is harmful to viral genomes, stopping their replication and showing broad antiviral effects.
  • Researchers used ProTide technology to enhance the production of ddhCTP in cells, demonstrating effectiveness against West Nile virus and Zika virus.
  • New variants of nucleosides were synthesized, with some showing significantly stronger antiviral activity, highlighting the potential for developing them into effective antiviral agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This review article assesses the effectiveness and limitations of strategies to reduce falls among hospitalized older adults with frailty and dementia. It explores the efficacy of existing fall prevention strategies for a cohort that is acutely susceptible to falls and fall-related consequences. A systematic literature search was conducted across MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, employing Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to identify studies on fall prevention strategies in hospitalized older adults with both dementia and frailty published from 2013 to 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Midlife risk factors such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) confer a significantly increased risk of cognitive impairment in later life with executive function, memory, and attention domains often affected first. Spatiotemporal gait characteristics are emerging as important integrative biomarkers of neurocognitive function and of later dementia risk. We examined 24 spatiotemporal gait parameters across five domains of gait previously linked to cognitive function on usual-pace, maximal-pace, and cognitive dual-task gait conditions in 102 middle-aged adults with (57.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Problematic polypharmacy is the prescribing of five or more medications potentially inappropriately. Unintentional prescribing cascades represent an under-researched aspect of problematic polypharmacy and occur when an adverse drug reaction (ADR) is misinterpreted as a new symptom resulting in the initiation of a new medication. The aim of this study was to elicit key stakeholders' perceptions of and attitudes towards problematic polypharmacy, with a focus on prescribing cascades.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A new class of antibody-based drug therapy with the potential for disease modification is now available for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the complexity of drug eligibility, administration, cost, and safety of such disease modifying therapies (DMTs) necessitates adopting new treatment and care pathways. A working group was convened in Ireland to consider the implications of, and health system readiness for, DMTs for AD, and to describe a service model for the detection, diagnosis, and management of early AD in the Irish context, providing a template for similar small-medium sized healthcare systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Introducing new disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for Alzheimer's disease demands a fundamental shift in diagnosis and care for most health systems around the world. Understanding the views of health professionals, potential patients, care partners and taxpayers is crucial for service planning and expectation management about these new therapies.

Aims: To investigate the public's and professionals' perspectives regarding (1) acceptability of new DMTs for Alzheimer's disease; (2) perceptions of risk/benefits; (3) the public's willingness to pay (WTP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alzheimer's Disease (ad) is the most common cause of dementia, and in addition to cognitive decline, it directly contributes to physical frailty, falls, incontinence, institutionalisation and polypharmacy in older adults. Increasing availability of clinically validated biomarkers including cerebrospinal fluid and positron emission tomography to assess both amyloid and tau pathology has led to a reconceptualisation of ad as a clinical-biological diagnosis, rather than one based purely on clinical phenotype. However, co-pathology is frequent in older adults which influence the accuracy of biomarker interpretation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Antipsychotic use in Alzheimer disease (AD) is associated with adverse events and mortality. Whilst postulated to cause/exacerbate orthostatic hypotension (OH), the exact relationship between antipsychotic use and OH has never been explored in AD-a group who are particularly vulnerable to neuro-cardiovascular instability and adverse effects of medication on orthostatic blood pressure (BP) behaviour.

Methods: We analysed longitudinal data from an 18-month trial of Nilvadipine in mild-moderate AD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease and other dementias affect >50 million individuals globally and are characterised by broad clinical and biological heterogeneity. Cohort and biobank studies have played a critical role in advancing the understanding of disease pathophysiology and in identifying novel diagnostic and treatment approaches. However, further discovery and validation cohorts are required to clarify the real-world utility of new biomarkers, facilitate research into the development of novel therapies and advance our understanding of the clinical heterogeneity and pathobiology of neurodegenerative diseases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A dementia research prioritisation exercise was conducted in Ireland due to insufficient information on key research areas, involving an online survey of professionals and workshops with individuals living with dementia and their family caregivers.
  • The survey gathered feedback from 108 professionals, revealing that most priorities centered around enhancing the delivery and quality of care, alongside improving diagnosis and treatment methods for dementia.
  • The results aim to guide policymakers and researchers in directing limited resources towards impactful dementia research that meets the needs of those affected by the condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Modifiable risk factors for dementia remain prevalent in Ireland. A detailed examination of barriers to risk reduction behaviours in an Irish context has heretofore been lacking. Many existing studies examining barriers to brain health behaviours fail to examine how they might vary across different modifiable risk factors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: The assessment of decision-making ability of older adults with cognitive impairment is a complex challenge that geriatricians often face in relation to risk-taking situations (driving, aging in place, financial decisions, etc.). However, there are no clear and consensual practice guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF