Impact of influenza immunity on the mortality among older adults hospitalized with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study.

It has been suggested that the outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are better in individuals having recently received an influenza vaccine than in non-vaccinated individuals. We hypothesized that this association depends on the humoral responses against influenza viruses. We aim to assess the relationship between the humoral immunity against influenza and the 3-month all-cause mortality among hospitalized older patients with COVID-19.

Cluster randomized trials in nursing homes should better be planned as open-cohort than as closed-cohort.

Objectives: Two designs are frequently used in cluster randomized trials in nursing homes: closed cohort and open cohort. The former design includes residents at the beginning of the trial and then follows them. In the latter design, participants are enrolled at the beginning of the trial or although it is ongoing; at dates of assessment, all residents present in the nursing home are assessed.

Inter-expert agreement on indications for antibiotic therapy in older adults admitted to French hospital through an emergency department.

Background: Around one third of older adults with infections have an atypical presentation upon admission to an emergency department (ED).

Objective: To evaluate the level of agreement between experts from several disciplines on the indication for antibiotic therapy for a bacterial infection in older patients presenting at an ED, and to describe the characteristics of the infections.

Methods: Based on comprehensive medical records, three experts (a geriatrician, an emergency physician (EP), and an infectious disease specialist (IDS)) determined independently and then jointly whether a patient presenting at the ED had a bacterial infection requiring antibiotic therapy.

The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection fatality rate (IFR) doubles with every 5 y of age from childhood onward. Circulating autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α, IFN-ω, and/or IFN-β are found in ∼20% of deceased patients across age groups, and in ∼1% of individuals aged <70 y and in >4% of those >70 y old in the general population. With a sample of 1,261 unvaccinated deceased patients and 34,159 individuals of the general population sampled before the pandemic, we estimated both IFR and relative risk of death (RRD) across age groups for individuals carrying autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs, relative to noncarriers.

The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age-dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies.

SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate (IFR) doubles with every five years of age from childhood onward. Circulating autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α, IFN-ω, and/or IFN-β are found in ~20% of deceased patients across age groups. In the general population, they are found in ~1% of individuals aged 20-70 years and in >4% of those >70 years old.

Management of COVID-19 in a French Nursing Home: Experiences from a Multidisciplinary Mobile Team.

Background: Long-term residential care facilities and nursing homes are known to be particularly vulnerable to viral respiratory diseases and have expressed the need for multidisciplinary collaboration to help manage outbreaks when they occur.

Method: In April 2020, Tours University Medical Center created a multidisciplinary mobile team to help local nursing homes deal with outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team included a geriatrician, infectious disease experts, and palliative care specialists.

Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs are present in 4% of uninfected individuals over 70 years old and account for 20% of COVID-19 deaths.

Circulating autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing high concentrations (10 ng/mL, in plasma diluted 1 to 10) of IFN-α and/or -ω are found in about 10% of patients with critical COVID-19 pneumonia, but not in subjects with asymptomatic infections. We detect auto-Abs neutralizing 100-fold lower, more physiological, concentrations of IFN-α and/or -ω (100 pg/mL, in 1/10 dilutions of plasma) in 13.6% of 3,595 patients with critical COVID-19, including 21% of 374 patients > 80 years, and 6.

A Local COVID-19 Support Platform for Nursing Homes: Feedback and Perspectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on nursing homes (NHs), which were not prepared to manage infections among their at-risk patient populations. In order to comply with the French government's guidelines, we rapidly set up a local support platform (LSP) to help NHs manage their cases of COVID-19. The LSP comprised multidisciplinary decision support, a specialist phone hotline, mobile geriatric medicine teams, and videoconferences on COVID-19.

Functional Anatomy of the Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus: From Historical Reports to Current Hypotheses.

The inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) is a long-range, associative white matter pathway that connects the occipital and temporal-occipital areas of the brain to the anterior temporal areas. In view of the ILF's anatomic connections, it has been suggested that this pathway has a major role in a relatively large array of brain functions. Until recently, however, the literature data on these potential functions were scarce.