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Background: Total Knee Replacement surgery restores joint function in patients with advanced osteoarthritis. There are several prostheses available based on different mechanisms, which guarantee knee stability during Activities of Daily Living. The aim of this study is to compare ball-in-socket (or Medial Pivot) and post-cam mechanisms to detect possible differences in terms of biomechanical parameters between these two prosthesis designs and to evaluate which design is closer to physiological biomechanics., Methods: A kinematics, kinetics and electromyography lower limb analyses were performed during gait on sixty subjects: twenty with Medial Pivot prosthesis, twenty with posterior stabilized prosthesis and twenty healthy subjects to obtain a physiologic reference., Findings: Total Knee Replacement gait pattern for both patient groups were characterized by reduced walking speed, reduced stride length and increased stance time respect to control group. Comparison between Medial Pivot and Posterior Stabilized groups showed a reduction of knee flexion and flexor moment in patients with ball-in-socket mechanism. A prolonged muscular activity of rectus femoris was observed in Medial Pivot patients compared to Posterior Stabilized and control groups., Interpretation: "Stiff knee pattern" mechanism was showed for both patient groups but more enhanced in Medial Pivot patients. Even though the Posterior Stabilized design introduces the non-physiological paradoxical motion and the Medial Pivot design seems to better reproduce the physiological condylar movement as gait analysis parameters, including kinematics, kinetics and electromyographic parameters were closer to control group and, in turn, to physiological gait for the Posterior Stabilized than Medial Pivot group parameters., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest In the name of the authors of the manuscript “Biomechanical Analysis on Total Knee Replacement patients during gait: Medial Pivot or Posterior Stabilized design?” I declare that we do not have any financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could have inappropriately influenced this study., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPDE) frequently require hospitalizations, may necessitate of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and are associated with a remarkable in-hospital mortality. The BAP-65 score is a risk assessment model (RAM) based on simple variables, that has been proposed for the prediction of these adverse outcomes in patients with COPDE. If showed to be accurate, the BAP-65 RAM might be used to guide the patients management, in terms of destination and treatment. We conducted a retrospective, multicentre, chart-review study, on patients attending the ED for a COPDE during 2014. The aim of the study was the validation of the BAP-65 RAM for the prediction of in-hospital death or use of IMV (composite primary outcome). We assessed the discrimination and the prognostic performance of the BAP-65 RAM. We enrolled 2908 patients from 20 centres across Italy. The mean (standard deviation) age was 76 (11) years, and 38% of patients were female. The composite outcome occurred in 5.3% of patients. The AUROC of BAP-65 for the composite outcome was 0.64 (95%CI 0.59-0.68). The sensitivity of BAP-65 score ≥ 4 to predict in-hospital mortality was 44% (95% CI 34%-55%), the specificity was 84% (95% CI 82%-85%), the positive predictive value was 9% (95% CI 6%-12%), and the negative predictive value was 98% (95% CI 97%-98%). CONCLUSIONS: In patients attending Italian EDs with a COPDE, we found that the BAP-65 score did not have sufficient accuracy to stratify patients upon their risk of severe in-hospital outcomes., (Copyright © 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPDs) frequently cause patients with COPD to access the emergency department and have a negative impact on the course of the disease. The objectives of our study were: 1) describing the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, and the clinical management, of patients with AECOPD, when they present to the emergency department; and 2) estimating the costs related to the management of these patients. We conducted a retrospective cohort study in Italy, collecting data on 4396 patients, from 34 centres. Patients had a mean (SD) age of 76,6 (10.6) years, and 61.2% of them where males. >70% of the patients had a moderate to very high comorbidity burden, and heart failure was present in 26.4% of the cohort. The 64.6% of patients were admitted to hospital wards, with a mean (SD) length of stay of 10.8 (9.8) days. The estimated cost per patient was 2617 €., Conclusions: Patients attending the ED for an AECOPD are old and present important comorbidities. The rate of admission is high, and costs are remarkable., (Copyright © 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A crutch is prescribed to permit the patient to walk safely and independently immediately after total hip replacement (THR) surgery. Purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the crutch setup on upper limbs biomechanics, including shoulder joint kinematics and kinetics parameters that will be evaluated to detect possible differences related to the crutch length. Thirty patients were randomly assigned to elbow flexed (EF) or elbow extended (EE) forearm crutch setup. Subjects were asked to walk on the laboratory path, instrumented with motion tracking system and force platforms. Spatiotemporal gait parameters, crutch ground reaction force (GRF) and crutch displacement (measured as the relative distance between the crutch position on the floor and the shoulder joint center), were evaluated. A three-dimensional (3D) biomechanical model was implemented to determine shoulder joint kinematics and kinetics during crutch walking. Results showed that the stride length significantly decreased, and base of support width increased for the EF group when compared to the EE group. Crutch forces and distance to the body significantly decreased in the EE group. Furthermore, shoulder joint moments in all planes of motion, vertical and lateral forces were significantly reduced in the EE group. The present study showed that crutch setup influenced performance and upper limb loading during walking, with EE setup allowing a more stable walking and reducing stress on the shoulder joint when compared to the EF setup. Results may help therapists in rationalizing crutch length adjustments for patients after THR surgery., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Clinical events occurring during hospital stay are independent predictors of prolonged hospitalization, in-hospital mortality and readmission among elderly patients admitted to medical wards., Purpose: To identify predictors of intercurrent clinical events (ICE) during hospital stay among the main demographic, functional and clinical characteristics assessed at hospital admission in a multicenter sample of elderly inpatients in Italy., Methods: This observational prospective cohort study was conducted in 66 internal and geriatric medicine hospital wards in 2010. It enrolled 1267 inpatients aged 65years or older living at home before hospitalization. Multivariable Poisson regression analyses were employed to identify the most common ICEs as well as their independent predictors., Results: During the hospital stay 427 patients (33.7%) experienced at least one ICE. The most common ICEs were urinary tract infections, pneumonia, anemia, arrhythmias and fluid electrolyte disorders. After correction for age, sex, comorbidity, cognitive impairment and functional dependence, independent predictors of any ICE were: being a bladder catheter holder (RR [risk ratio] 1.86, 95% CI 1.52-2.27), being on treatment at home with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) (RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.03-1.53), with immunosuppressant therapy (RR 2.10, 95% CI 1.24-3.56), and body temperature at admission (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06-1.33)., Conclusion: Four clinical characteristics, easily assessable at admission, may be useful to identify elderly inpatients at a higher risk for developing ICEs during hospital stay. Furthermore three of these predictors are modifiable factors, thus interventions reducing the use of catheter, PPI and immunosuppressants may result in reduction of ICEs., (Copyright © 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aims of this study were to evaluate whether or not there are gender differences in drug use at hospital admission and prescription at discharge and to evaluate the effect of hospitalization on medication patterns in the elderly., Method: In-patients aged >65years included in the REPOSI registry during a recruitment period of 3years (2008-2010-2012) were analyzed in order to evaluate drug use at hospital admission and prescription at discharge according to gender., Results: A total of 3473 patients, 52% women and 48% men, were considered. Polypharmacy (>5 drugs) is more frequent in men both at hospital admission and discharge. At hospital discharge, the number of prescriptions increased in both sexes at all age groups. Neuropsychiatric drugs were significantly more prescribed in women (p<0.0001). At admission men were more likely to be on antiplatelets (41.7% vs 36.7%; p=0.0029), ACE-inhibitors (28.7% vs 24.7%; p=0.0072) and statins (22.9% vs 18.3%; p=0.0008). At discharge, antiplatelets (43.7% vs 37.3%; p=0.0003) and statins (25,2% vs 19.6%; p<0.0001) continued to be prescribed more often in men, while women were given beta-blockers more often than men (21.8% vs 18.9%; p=0.0340). Proton pump inhibitors were the most prescribed drugs regardless of gender. At discharge, the medication pattern did not change according to gender., Conclusion: Our study showed a gender difference in overall medications pattern in the hospitalized elderly. Hospitalization, while increasing the number of prescriptions, did not change drug distribution by sex., (Copyright © 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Few studies evaluated the clinical outcomes of Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP), Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (HAP) and Health Care-Associated Pneumonia (HCAP) in relation to the adherence of antibiotic treatment to the guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) in hospitalized elderly people (65 years or older)., Methods: Data were obtained from REPOSI, a prospective registry held in 87 Italian internal medicine and geriatric wards. Patients with a diagnosis of pneumonia (ICD-9 480-487) or prescribed with an antibiotic for pneumonia as indication were selected. The empirical antibiotic regimen was defined to be adherent to guidelines if concordant with the treatment regimens recommended by IDSA/ATS for CAP, HAP, and HCAP. Outcomes were assessed by logistic regression models., Results: A diagnosis of pneumonia was made in 317 patients. Only 38.8% of them received an empirical antibiotic regimen that was adherent to guidelines. However, no significant association was found between adherence to guidelines and outcomes. Having HAP, older age, and higher CIRS severity index were the main factors associated with in-hospital mortality., Conclusions: The adherence to antibiotic treatment guidelines was poor, particularly for HAP and HCAP, suggesting the need for more adherence to the optimal management of antibiotics in the elderly with pneumonia., (Copyright © 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: It is well known that atrial fibrillation (AF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are associated with a higher risk of stroke, and new evidence links AF to cognitive impairment, independently from an overt stroke (CI). Our aim was to investigate, assuming an underlying role of atrial microembolism, the impact of CI and CKD in elderly hospitalized patients with AF., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data collected on elderly patients in 66 Italian hospitals, in the frame of the REPOSI project. We analyzed the clinical characteristics of patients with AF and different degrees of CI. Multivariate logistic analysis was used to explore the relationship between variables and mortality., Results: Among the 1384 patients enrolled, 321 had AF. Patients with AF were older, had worse CI and disability and higher rates of stroke, hypertension, heart failure, and CKD, and less than 50% were on anticoagulant therapy. Among patients with AF, those with worse CI and those with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) had a higher mortality risk (odds ratio 1.13, p=0.006). Higher disability levels, older age, higher systolic blood pressure, and higher eGFR were related to lower probability of oral anticoagulant prescription. Lower mortality rates were found in patients on oral anticoagulant therapy., Conclusions: Elderly hospitalized patients with AF are more likely affected by CI and CKD, two conditions that expose them to a higher mortality risk. Oral anticoagulant therapy, still underused and not optimally enforced, may afford protection from thromboembolic episodes that probably concur to the high mortality., (Copyright © 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Increased serum uric acid has been considered a cardiovascular risk factor but no study has assessed its relation with hospital mortality or length of stay. On the basis of data obtained from a prospective registry, the prevalence of gout/hyperuricemia and its association with these and other clinical parameters was evaluated in an Italian cohort of elderly patients acutely admitted to internal medicine or geriatric wards., Methods: While the prevalence of gout was calculated by counting patients with this diagnosis hyperuricemia was inferred in patients taking allopurinol at hospital admission or discharge, on the assumption that this drug was only prescribed owing to the finding of high serum levels of uric acid. A series of clinical and demographic variables were evaluated for their association with gout/hyperuricemia., Results: Of 1380 patients, 139 (10%) had a diagnosis of gout or were prescribed allopurinol. They had more co-morbidities (7.0 vs 5.6; P<0.0001) and consumed more drugs (6.8 vs 5.0; P<0.0001). The CIRS (co-morbidity index) was worse in these patients (OR 1.28 95% CI 1.15-1.41). Multivariable regression analysis showed that only renal and heart failures were independently associated with gout/allopurinol intake. Moreover, this combined event was associated with an increased risk of adverse events during hospitalization (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.16-2.36), but not with the risk of re-hospitalization, length of hospital stay or death., Conclusions: Gout/allopurinol intake has a high prevalence in elderly patients acutely admitted to hospital and are associated with renal and cardiovascular diseases, an increased rate of adverse events and a high degree of drug consumption. In contrast, this finding did not affect the length of hospitalization nor hospital mortality., (Copyright © 2014 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: Women live longer and outnumber men. On the other hand, older women develop more chronic diseases and conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis and depression, leading to a greater number of years of living with disabilities. The aim of this study was to describe whether or not there are gender differences in the demographic profile, disease distribution and outcome in a population of hospitalized elderly people., Methods: Retrospective observational study including all patients recruited for the REPOSI study in the year 2010. Analyses are referred to the whole group and gender categorization was applied., Results: A total of 1380 hospitalized elderly subjects, 50.5% women and 49.5% men, were considered. Women were older than men, more often widow and living alone or in nursing homes. Disease distribution showed that malignancy, diabetes, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were more frequent in men, but hypertension, osteoarthritis, anemia and depression were more frequent in women. Severity and comorbidity indexes according to the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS-s and CIRS-c) were higher in men, while cognitive impairment evaluated by the Short Blessed Test (SBT), mood disorders by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and disability in daily life measured by Barthel Index (BI) were worse in women. In-hospital and 3-month mortality rates were higher in men., Conclusions: Our study showed a gender dimorphism in the demographic and morbidity profiles of hospitalized elderly people, emphasizing once more the need for a personalized process of healthcare., (Copyright © 2014 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Scores for cardio-embolic and bleeding risk in patients with atrial fibrillation are described in the literature. However, it is not clear how they co-classify elderly patients with multimorbidity, nor whether and how they affect the physician's decision on thromboprophylaxis., Methods: Four scores for cardio-embolic and bleeding risks were retrospectively calculated for ≥ 65 year old patients with atrial fibrillation enrolled in the REPOSI registry. The co-classification of patients according to risk categories based on different score combinations was described and the relationship between risk categories tested. The association between the antithrombotic therapy received and the scores was investigated by logistic regressions and CART analyses., Results: At admission, among 543 patients the median scores (range) were: CHADS2 2 (0-6), CHA2DS2-VASc 4 (1-9), HEMORR2HAGES 3 (0-7), HAS-BLED 2 (1-6). Most of the patients were at high cardio-embolic/high-intermediate bleeding risk (70.5% combining CHADS2 and HEMORR2HAGES, 98.3% combining CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED). 50-60% of patients were classified in a cardio-embolic risk category higher than the bleeding risk category. In univariate and multivariable analyses, a higher bleeding score was negatively associated with warfarin prescription, and positively associated with aspirin prescription. The cardio-embolic scores were associated with the therapeutic choice only after adjusting for bleeding score or age., Conclusion: REPOSI patients represented a population at high cardio-embolic and bleeding risks, but most of them were classified by the scores as having a higher cardio-embolic than bleeding risk. Yet, prescription and type of antithrombotic therapy appeared to be primarily dictated by the bleeding risk., (© 2013.)

Background: The aim of this study was to identify which factors were associated with a risk of hospital readmission within 3 months after discharge of a sample of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine and geriatric wards., Methods: Of the 1178 patients aged 65 years or more and discharged from one of the 66 wards of the 'Registry Politerapie SIMI (REPOSI)' during 2010, 766 were followed up by phone interview 3 months after discharge and were included in this analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of several variables with rehospitalization within 3 months from discharge., Results: Nineteen percent of patients were readmitted at least once within 3 months after discharge. By univariate analysis in-hospital clinical adverse events (AEs), a previous hospital admission, number of diagnoses and drugs, comorbidity and severity index (according to Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-CIRS), vascular and liver diseases with a level of impairment at discharge of 3 or more at CIRS were significantly associated with risk of readmission. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only AEs during hospitalization, previous hospital admission, and vascular and liver diseases were significantly associated with the likelihood of readmission., Conclusions: The results demonstrate the need for increased medical attention towards elderly patients discharged from hospital with characteristics such as AEs during the hospitalization, previous admission, vascular and liver diseases., (Copyright © 2012 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although the association between multimorbidity and polypharmacy has been clearly documented, no study has analyzed whether or not specific combinations of diseases influence the prescription of polypharmacy in older persons. We assessed which clusters of diseases are associated with polypharmacy in acute-care elderly in-patients., Methods: This cross-sectional study was held in 38 Italian internal medicine and geriatric wards participating in the Registro Politerapie SIMI (REPOSI) study during 2008. The study sample included 1155 in-patients aged 65 years or older. Clusters of diseases, defined as two or more co-occurring specific chronic diseases, were identified using the odds ratio (OR) for the associations between pairs of diseases followed by cluster analysis. Polypharmacy was defined as the prescription of five or more different medications at hospital discharge. Logistic regression models were run to analyze the association between clusters of diseases and polypharmacy., Results: Among clusters of diseases, the highest mean number of drugs (>8) was found in patients affected by heart failure (HF) plus chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), HF plus chronic renal failure (CRF), COPD plus coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes mellitus plus CRF, and diabetes mellitus plus CHD plus cerebrovascular disease (CVD). The strongest association between clusters of diseases and polypharmacy was found for diabetes mellitus plus CHD plus CVD, diabetes plus CHD, and HF plus atrial fibrillation (AF)., Conclusions: The observed knowledge of the relationship among co-occurring diseases and polypharmacy should help to identify and monitor older in-patients at risk of polypharmacy., (Copyright © 2011 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are among the most commonly prescribed medicines and their overuse is widespread in both primary and secondary care. Inappropriate prescription is of particular concern among elderly patients, who have often multiple comorbidities and need many drugs., Methods: We evaluate the appropriateness of drugs for peptic ulcer or gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) in a sample of elderly patients (65 years old or older) at admission and discharge in 38 internal medicine wards between January 2008 and December 2008, according to the presence of specific conditions or gastro-toxic drug combinations., Results: Among 1155 patients eligible for the analysis, 466 (40.3%) were treated with drugs for GERD or peptic ulcer were at hospital admission and 647 (56.0%) at discharge; 62.4% of patients receiving a drug for peptic ulcer or GERD at admission and 63.2% at discharge were inappropriately treated. Among these, the number of other drugs prescribed was associated with greater use of drugs for peptic ulcer or GERD, even after adjustment for age, sex and number of diagnoses at admission (OR 95% CI=1.26 (1.18-1.34), p=.0001) or discharge (OR 95% CI=1.11 (1.05-1.18), p=0.0003)., Conclusions: Prevalence of inappropriate prescription of drugs for peptic ulcer or GERD remained almost the same at admission and discharge. Inappropriate use of these drugs is related to the concomitant use of other drugs. Careful assessment of clinical conditions and stricter adherence to evidence-based guidelines are essential for a rational and cost-effective use of drugs for peptic ulcer or GERD., (Copyright © 2010 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Current guidelines for ischemic stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation or flutter (AFF) recommend Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for patients at high-intermediate risk and aspirin for those at intermediate-low risk. The cost-effectiveness of these treatments was demonstrated also in elderly patients. However, there are several reports that emphasize the underuse of pharmacological prophylaxis of cardio-embolism in patients with AFF in different health care settings., Aims: To evaluate the adherence to current guidelines on cardio-embolic prophylaxis in elderly (> 65 years old) patients admitted with an established diagnosis of AFF to the Italian internal medicine wards participating in REPOSI registry, a project on polypathologies/polytherapies stemming from the collaboration between the Italian Society of Internal Medicine and the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research; to investigate whether or not hospitalization had an impact on guidelines adherence; to test the role of possible modifiers of VKAs prescription., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed registry data collected from January to December 2008 and assessed the prevalence of patients with AFF at admission and the prevalence of risk factors for cardio-embolism. After stratifying the patients according to their CHADS(2) score the percentage of appropriateness of antithrombotic therapy prescription was evaluated both at admission and at discharge. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were employed to verify whether or not socio-demographic (age >80years, living alone) and clinical features (previous or recent bleeding, cranio-facial trauma, cancer, dementia) modified the frequency and modalities of antithrombotic drugs prescription at admission and discharge., Results: Among the 1332 REPOSI patients, 247 were admitted with AFF. At admission, CHADS(2) score was ≥ 2 in 68.4% of patients, at discharge in 75.9%. Among patients with AFF 26.5% at admission and 32.8% at discharge were not on any antithrombotic therapy, and 43.7% at admission and 40.9% at discharge were not taking an appropriate therapy according to the CHADS(2) score. The higher the level of cardio-embolic risk the higher was the percentage of antiplatelet- but not of VKAs-treated patients. At admission or at discharge, both at univariable and at multivariable logistic regression, only an age >80 years and a diagnosis of cancer, previous or active, had a statistically significant negative effect on VKAs prescription. Moreover, only a positive history of bleeding events (past or present) was independently associated to no VKA prescription at discharge in patients who were on VKA therapy at admission. If heparin was considered as an appropriate therapy for patients with indication for VKAs, the percentage of patients admitted or discharged on appropriate therapy became respectively 43.7% and 53.4%., Conclusion: Among elderly patients admitted with a diagnosis of AFF to internal medicine wards, an appropriate antithrombotic prophylaxis was taken by less than 50%, with an underuse of VKAs prescription independently of the level of cardio-embolic risk. Hospitalization did not improve the adherence to guidelines., (Copyright © 2010 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)