Focus on geriatric medicine

The treatment of elderly patients should be adapted to their risks

2015-03-11

(Press-News.org) Very old persons often have chronic problems, such as physical immobility, unsteady gait, and mental impairments. In such patients, these risks have to be considered and their treatments adapted accordingly. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International in its current issue introduces two original articles on the subject of geriatric medicine. The study reported by Wolfgang von Renteln-Kruse et al. (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112: 103) investigated the clinical treatment of geriatric patients with cognitive impairment, who require an appropriate environment and appropriate care. Stefan Grund et al. (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112: 113) in their study analyzed the concept of a center for geriatric traumatology, to provide care for elderly people who have had accidents resulting in leg fractures, which required inpatient treatment. Acute older patients who are admitted to the hospital--for example, for infections or cardiocirculatory disorders--often have comorbidities, such as cognitive deficits or dementia. Such comorbidities will have to be considered and treated during inpatient stays. As von Renteln-Kruse et al. showed in their study of a cognitive geriatric ward for, structured and occupational therapy can improve patients' activities with relevance to their everyday lives and--as far as possible--reduce their regular medications. Fractures resulting from falls are a common disease pattern in geriatric patients. Grund et al. investigated how a center for geriatric traumatology can improve the care provided to such patients. The crucial issue is that such patients receive treatment simultaneously from a trauma surgeon and a geriatrician, from admission to discharge. The study shows that far fewer patients who had received such therapy were admitted to intensive care wards, and that their in-hospital mortality was lower than was the case for patients receiving conventional care. Even though the average duration of hospital stays increased as a result of this treatment concept, the authors emphasize the benefits for the patients.

INFORMATION:

Contacts: matthias.schuler@diakonissen.de OR matthias.schuler@diakonissen.de

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=167962 http://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=167961

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Urging HPV vaccine for boys could protect more people at same price

2015-03-11

DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University study proposes a strategy to better use limited public health care dollars for protecting more people from a sexually transmitted infection called human papillomavirus (HPV) and the cancers it can cause. Public health programs that devote a portion of their funding to encourage more boys to be vaccinated against HPV -- rather than merely attempting to raise coverage among girls -- may ultimately protect more people for the same price, the study suggests. The findings appear online in the journal Epidemics. Whether vaccinating boys against ...

Drug restores brain function and memory in early Alzheimer's disease

2015-03-11

A novel therapeutic approach for an existing drug reverses a condition in elderly patients who are at high risk for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found. The drug, commonly used to treat epilepsy, calms hyperactivity in the brain of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a clinically recognized condition in which memory impairment is greater than expected for a person's age and which greatly increases risk for Alzheimer's dementia, according to the study published this week in NeuroImage: Clinical. The ...

Physicians and patients overestimate risk of death from acute coronary syndrome

2015-03-11

WASHINGTON - Both physicians and patients overestimate the risk of heart attack or death for possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as well as the potential benefit of hospital admission for possible ACS. A survey of patient and physician communication and risk assessment, along with an editorial, were published online last week in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Quantifying Patient-Physician Communication and Perceptions of Risk During Admissions for Possible Acute Coronary Syndromes" and "Lost in Translation: Physician Understanding and Communication of Risk to Patients ...

Physicists propose new classification of charge density waves

2015-03-11

LSU Professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy Ward Plummer and Jiandi Zhang, in collaboration with their colleagues from the Institute of Physics, Beijing, China, have published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 112, pg. 2367) titled "Classification of Charge Density Waves based on their Nature." This work is a result of a collaboration funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Charge Density Waves, or CDWs, are observed in many solids, especially in low-dimensional systems. The existence of CDWs was first predicted in the ...

Telemedicine allows UTHealth to enroll patients remotely into acute stroke trial

2015-03-11

For the first time in the world, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) were able to enroll patients at other hospitals into an acute stroke clinical trial. The research was published in a recent issue of the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, a publication of the American Neurological Association. "One of the main drawbacks of conducting clinical trials for stroke is that we traditionally are limited to patients who arrive at large stroke centers that have the expertise to treat stroke quickly to minimize damage ...

Study reveals sexual appeal of war heroes

2015-03-11

Women are more attracted to war heroes than regular soldiers or men who display heroic traits in other fields, such as in sports or natural disaster work, according to new research from the University of Southampton and partners in Europe. The findings also suggest that men did not find heroism to be a sexually attractive trait in women. In the study, published online in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, 92 women studying in the UK were presented with hypothetical profiles of the opposite sex, representing varying levels of heroism in different contexts such ...

New mums more satisfied after giving birth in a public hospital

2015-03-11

Women who give birth in a public hospital are more confident parents compared to women who have babies privately, a new Australian study has found. A joint study by Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland, surveyed more than 6400 mums in Queensland, and found women who birth in the public sector were more likely to receive after-hospital health care, in turn boosting their confidence as a new parent, than women in the private system. Associate Professor Yvette Miller from QUT's Faculty of Health and one of the authors of the study published ...

A grand extravaganza of new stars

2015-03-11

At the centre of the image is the open star cluster NGC 6193, containing around thirty bright stars and forming the heart of the Ara OB1 association. The two brightest stars are very hot giant stars. Together, they provide the main source of illumination for the nearby emission nebula, the Rim Nebula, or NGC 6188, which is visible to the right of the cluster. A stellar association is a large grouping of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site. OB associations consist largely of very young blue-white stars, which ...

NYU scientists develop computer model explaining how brain learns to categorize

2015-03-11

New York University researchers have devised a computer model to explain how a neural circuit learns to classify sensory stimuli into discrete categories, such as "car vs. motorcycle." Their findings, which appear in the journal Nature Communications, shed new light on the brain processes underpinning judgments we make on a daily basis. "Categorization is vital for survival, such as distinguishing food from inedible things, as well as for formation of concepts, for instance 'dog vs. cat,' and relationship between concepts, such as hierarchical classification of animals," ...

Assessing feedback interactions in a creative setting

2015-03-11

Chestnut Hill, MA (March 9th, 2015): Feedback - the objective response, opinion, or input - is something most of us experience either at work or amongst friends to bodies of work or projects that are complete. But in the world of creative processes - where no one knows what the finished product should look like - feedback is inherently different, and more constructive, according to new research by a Boston College professor who says the findings should be utilized in the corporate world. "Traditionally when we think about feedback, we think about the manager who knows ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New tablet shows promise for the control and elimination of intestinal worms

Project to redesign clinical trials for neurologic conditions for underserved populations funded with $2.9M grant to UTHealth Houston

Menarini Group and Insilico Medicine enter a second exclusive global license agreement for an AI discovered preclinical asset targeting high unmet needs in oncology

Climate fee on food could effectively cut greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture while ensuring a social balance

Harnessing microwave flow reaction to convert biomass into useful sugars

[Press-News.org] Focus on geriatric medicine
The treatment of elderly patients should be adapted to their risks