Venous thromboembolism knowledge among older post-hip fracture patients and their caregivers.

Patient education about venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention is needed to prevent complications and costly re-hospitalization. Nurses are uniquely positioned to provide vital education as patients transition from the inpatient setting to after discharge. Still, little is known about patient knowledge deficits and those of their caregivers.

Association of common genetic variants in GPCPD1 with scaling of visual cortical surface area in humans.

Visual cortical surface area varies two- to threefold between human individuals, is highly heritable, and has been correlated with visual acuity and visual perception. However, it is still largely unknown what specific genetic and environmental factors contribute to normal variation in the area of visual cortex. To identify SNPs associated with the proportional surface area of visual cortex, we performed a genome-wide association study followed by replication in two independent cohorts.

Translational research: connecting evidence to clinical practice.

Translational research can be conceptualized within several blocks or spheres of knowledge transfer and focused on closing the gap between new discoveries and their endpoint application to clinical practice, health decision-making, and health policy. Although support for type 1 translational research (the classical bench-to-bedside paradigm) is common, it is types 2 and 3 that have the ultimate impact on sustaining important changes in clinical practice as health decision-making and policy are changed to support the practice innovation. The Clinical Translational Science Centers (issued by the National Institutes of Health in the USA) provide many successful examples in which nurses are key stakeholders in achieving these translational goals for the improvement of clinical practice.

Screening for abuse and neglect of people with dementia.

Objective: To investigate characteristics of people with dementia and their caregivers (CGs) that are associated with mistreatment in order to inform clinicians about screening for mistreatment.

Design: A convenience sample of CG-care recipient (CR) dyads were assessed for literature-supported factors associated with mistreatment, and evidence of mistreatment for the prior year was collected. An expert panel considered the evidence and decided on occurrences of psychological abuse, physical abuse, and neglect based on criteria adopted before data collection.

Diagnosing depression in Alzheimer disease with the national institute of mental health provisional criteria.

Objective: To compare the rates of depression in Alzheimer Disease (AD) determined using National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provisional criteria for depression in AD (NIMH-dAD) to those determined using other established depression assessment tools.

Design: Descriptive longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: The Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers of California.

Writing an application for a human subjects institutional review board.

After reading this article, readers will be able to do the following: understand the role and responsibilities of an institutional review board (IRB); recognize the major areas that must be addressed in an IRB submission; and avoid common mistakes in writing a research application submission to an IRB.

Effects of testosterone on cognition and mood in male patients with mild Alzheimer disease and healthy elderly men.

Context: There is a compelling need for therapies that prevent, defer the onset, slow the progression, or improve the symptoms of Alzheimer disease (AD).

Objective: To evaluate the effects of testosterone therapy on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and quality of life in male patients with mild AD and healthy elderly men.

Design: Twenty-four-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study.

Methodological issues in estrogen treatment trials for Alzheimer's disease.

Over the past two decades, many clinical trials have been conducted using different forms of estrogen therapy with and without progestin supplementation in an effort to treat diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. Design variations among these trials may account for the inconsistent results of these investigations and the persistent gap in knowledge about the appropriate use of estrogen in the treatment paradigm for degenerative diseases.

Estrogen replacement therapy, Alzheimer's disease, and mild cognitive impairment.

This article highlights the latest findings regarding estrogen replacement therapy in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment in women. Despite considerable evidence from observational studies, recent randomized clinical trials of conjugated equine estrogens, alone and in combination with progestin, have shown no benefit for either the treatment of established AD or for the short-term prevention of AD, mild cognitive impairment, or cognitive decline. Based on the evidence, there is no role at present for estrogen replacement therapy in the treatment or prevention of AD or cognitive decline, despite intriguing results from the laboratory and from observational studies.

Mild cognitive impairment can be distinguished from Alzheimer disease and normal aging for clinical trials.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a transitional state between the cognitive changes of normal aging and very early dementia and is becoming increasingly recognized as a risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD). The Memory Impairment Study (MIS) is a multicenter clinical trial in patients with MCI designed to evaluate whether vitamin E or donepezil is effective at delaying the time to a clinical diagnosis of AD.

Objective: To describe the baseline characteristics of patients with MCI recruited for the MIS and compare them with those of elderly controls and patients with AD in another clinical trial.

Estrogen levels do not correlate with improvement in cognition.

Objective: To investigate whether an association exists between estradiol and estrone levels and measures of cognitive functioning in women with Alzheimer disease (AD) treated with conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin; Wyeth-Ayerst, Philadelphia, Pa).

Methods: We studied 120 postmenopausal women who underwent hysterectomy and who had AD treated with Premarin for 1 year. Plasma estradiol and estrone levels were determined at multiple points during the 1-year treatment trial.