Longitudinal prevalence of potentially inappropriate medicines and potential prescribing omissions in a cohort of community-dwelling older people.

Purpose: This study aims to compare the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medicines (PIMs) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs) using several screening tools in an Irish community-dwelling older cohort, to assess if the prevalence changes over time and to determine factors associated with any change.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of participants aged ≥65 years in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) with linked pharmacy claims data (n = 2051). PIM and PPO prevalence was measured in the year preceding participants' TILDA baseline interviews and in the year preceding their follow-up interviews using the Screening Tool for Older Persons' Prescriptions (STOPP), Beers criteria (2012), Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) indicators and the Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment (START).

Syncope causes transient focal neurological symptoms.

Aims: The prevalence of focal neurology (FN) as a consequence of syncope is unknown. The aim of the study was to determine its prevalence, risk factors and short-term consequences.

Methods: A consecutive sample of syncope-unit attendees during a 9-month period had detailed diagnostic syncope evaluation as per European Cardiac Society guidelines coupled with assessment for FN present during syncope/pre-syncope by screening questionnaire, follow-up interview and neuroimaging (1.

Measurement of prompt ψ(2S) to J/ψ yield ratios in Pb-Pb and p-p collisions at sqrt[sNN]=2.76 TeV.

The ratio between the prompt ψ(2S) and J/ψ yields, reconstructed via their decays into μ+ μ-, is measured in Pb-Pb and p-p collisions at sqrt[sNN]=2.76  TeV. The analysis is based on Pb-Pb and p-p data samples collected by CMS at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 150  μb(-1) and 5.

Recent syncope and unexplained falls are associated with poor cognitive performance.

Objective: To compare cognitive performance in participants with and without syncope and unexplained falls in a large population representative sample aged 50 years or older.

Methods: Participants of the Irish longitudinal study on ageing (TILDA) were studied. Participants with a history of syncope and/or unexplained falls in the past 12 months were compared with those with no reported events.

Social Disadvantage and Social Isolation Are Associated With a Higher Resting Heart Rate: Evidence From The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Objectives: A high resting heart rate (RHR) represents a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and individuals from poorer backgrounds have a higher RHR compared with their more advantaged peers. This study investigates the pathways through which low socioeconomic status (SES) contributes to a higher RHR.

Method: The sample involved data for 4,888 respondents who were participating in the first wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Sedative load and frailty among community-dwelling population aged ≥65 years.

Objective: To explore the association between use of sedative drugs and frailty.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: First wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a nationally representative cohort of the community-dwelling population aged 50 years or older in Ireland.

Developing mental health mobile apps: Exploring adolescents' perspectives.

Mobile applications or 'apps' have significant potential for use in mental health interventions with adolescents. However, there is a lack of research exploring end users' needs from such technologies. The aim of this study was to explore adolescents' needs and concerns in relation to mental health mobile apps.

Cognitive function in the prefrailty and frailty syndrome.

Objectives: To explore the relationship between cognitive function and frailty.

Design: A cross-sectional study using data from Wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a population representative study of adults aged 50 and older in the Republic of Ireland.

Setting: Community-dwelling adults completed a home- or health center-based nurse-led assessment.

Stability of daily home-based measures of postural control over an 8-week period in highly functioning older adults.

Purpose: The focus of this study was to monitor daily objective measures of standing postural control over an 8-week period, recorded in a person's home, in a population of healthy older adults. Establishing natural patterns of variation in the day-to-day signal, occurring in the relative absence of functional decline or disease, would enable us to determine thresholds for changes in postural control from baseline that could be considered clinically important.

Methods: Eighteen community-dwelling older adults (3 M, 15 F, 72 ± 6 years) participated in a home-based trial where each day they were asked to complete a technology-enabled routine consisting of a short questionnaire, as well as a quiet standing balance trial.

Self-reported cardiovascular conditions are associated with falls and syncope in community-dwelling older adults.

Background: with increasing age, causes of syncope are more often of cardiac origin. Syncope in older persons is often mistaken for falls. Data regarding the association between specific cardiovascular conditions, falls and syncope are limited.

Polypharmacy including falls risk-increasing medications and subsequent falls in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults.

Background: polypharmacy is an important risk factor for falls, but recent studies suggest only when including medications associated with increasing the risk of falls.

Design: a prospective, population-based cohort study.

Subjects: 6,666 adults aged ≥50 years from The Irish Longitudinal study on Ageing.

Evidence of b-jet quenching in PbPb collisions at √(s(NN))=2.76 TeV.

The production of jets associated to bottom quarks is measured for the first time in PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. Jet spectra are reported in the transverse momentum (p(T)) range of 80-250  GeV/c, and within pseudorapidity |η|<2.

NILVAD protocol: a European multicentre double-blind placebo-controlled trial of nilvadipine in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: This study is a European multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigating the efficacy and safety of nilvadipine as a disease course modifying treatment for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a phase III study that will run for a period of 82 weeks with a treatment period of 78 weeks.

Methods And Analysis: Adult patients, males and females over 50 years with mild-to-moderate AD as defined by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) criteria, will be included in the study. It aims to recruit a total of 500 patients with AD; 250 in the nilvadipine group and 250 in the placebo group.

Atrial fibrillation is associated with impaired mobility in community-dwelling older adults.

Objectives: To examine the independent associations between atrial fibrillation (AF) and objectively measured mobility in a nationally representative cohort.

Design: Wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a population-based study assessing health, economic, and social aspects of ageing.

Setting: Community-dwelling adults completed a home-based interview and a center-based health assessment.

Age-related normative changes in phasic orthostatic blood pressure in a large population study: findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Background: In this report, we provide the first normative reference data and prevalence estimates of impaired orthostatic blood pressure (BP) stabilization, initial orthostatic hypotension, and orthostatic hypotension based on beat-to-beat blood pressure methods in a population-representative sample.

Methods And Results: Participants were recruited from a nationally representative cohort study (≥50 years). Beat-to-beat systolic BP, diastolic BP, and heart rate records were analyzed among those who underwent an active stand test (n=4475).

Classification of frailty and falls history using a combination of sensor-based mobility assessments.

Frailty is an important geriatric syndrome strongly linked to falls risk as well as increased mortality and morbidity. Taken alone, falls are the most common cause of injury and hospitalization and one of the principal causes of death and disability in older adults worldwide. Reliable determination of older adults' frailty state in concert with their falls risk could lead to targeted intervention and improved quality of care.

Relative association of processing speed, short-term memory and sustained attention with task on gait speed: a study of community-dwelling people 50 years and older.

Background: For single gait tasks, associations have been reported between gait speed and cognitive domains. However, few studies have evaluated if this association is altered in dual gait tasks given gait speed changes with complexity and nature of task. We evaluated relative contributions of specific elements of cognitive function (including sustained attention and processing speed) to dual task gait speed in a nationally representative population of community-dwelling adults over 50 years.

Cognitive performance in orthostatic hypotension: findings from a nationally representative sample.

Objectives: To compare the cognitive profile of a population representative sample with orthostatic hypotension (OH) with the profile of a sample without.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a prospective nationally representative population study.

Setting: The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Measurement of the Bs(0)→μ+ μ- branching fraction and search for B(0)→μ+ μ- with the CMS experiment.

Results are presented from a search for the rare decays Bs(0)→μ+ μ- and B(0)→μ+ μ- in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 and 8 TeV, with data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5 and 20  fb(-1), respectively, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. An unbinned maximum-likelihood fit to the dimuon invariant mass distribution gives a branching fraction B(Bs(0)→μ+ μ-)=(3.0(-0.

The lasting legacy of childhood adversity for disease risk in later life.

Objective: There has been an increased interest in the role of the childhood social environment in the etiology of adult diseases in recent years. The present study examines whether the experience of adversity during childhood increases risk for disease in later life independent of later life socioeconomic, behavioral, and psychosocial factors.

Method: The study involved a nationally representative sample of 6,912 persons aged 50 years and older who were participating in the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Antidepressants strongly influence the relationship between depression and heart rate variability: findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is known to be reduced in depression; however, is unclear whether this is a consequence of the disorder or due to antidepressant medication.

Methods: We analysed data on 4750 participants from the first wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Time [standard deviation of normal to normal intervals (SDNN ms2)] and frequency domain [low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF)] measures of HRV were derived from 3-lead surface electrocardiogram records obtained during 10 min of supine rest.

Higher orthostatic heart rate predicts mortality: The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Background: Orthostatic hemodynamic signals may predict adverse outcomes in elders.

Aims: To study the association between orthostatic hemodynamics and incident mortality in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

Methods: Wave 1 subjects underwent an active stand with non-invasive beat-to-beat blood pressure monitoring.

Laparoscopic common bile duct exploration versus pre or post-operative ERCP for common bile duct stones in patients undergoing cholecystectomy: is there any difference?

A best evidence topic in surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was: in patients with symptomatic gallstones and concomitant common bile duct (CBD) stones, is a single-stage surgical strategy (laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with common bile duct exploration) preferable, or a two-stage procedure involving LC with pre or post-operative endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERCP)? Two hundred and six papers were found using the reported search, of which four presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated.

Improving the efficiency of multisensory integration in older adults: audio-visual temporal discrimination training reduces susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion.

From language to motor control, efficient integration of information from different sensory modalities is necessary for maintaining a coherent interaction with the environment. While a number of training studies have focused on training perceptual and cognitive function, only very few are specifically targeted at improving multisensory processing. Discrimination of temporal order or coincidence is a criterion used by the brain to determine whether cross-modal stimuli should be integrated or not.