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The authors used 1H-MRS to investigate hypothalamic metabolism in 26 patients with cluster headache (CH) and 12 healthy subjects. Hypothalamic N-acetylaspartate/creatine was reduced in patients with CH vs controls (p < 0.01). Dividing the patients into episodic CH outside- and in-cluster periods and chronic CH, the hypothalamic N-acetylaspartate/creatine in all three subgroups of patients was reduced. The reduction of the neuronal marker N-acetylaspartate is consistent with hypothalamic neuronal dysfunction in patients with CH.

Objectives: This study investigates the cognitive, functional, and clinical variables associated with the risk of institutionalization, rehospitalization, and death at 12 months among a population of elderly discharged from a Rehabilitation and Aged Care Unit (RACU) within a 1-year period (May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005). The RACU is a relatively new setting of care providing intensive rehabilitation and clinical support to elderly with highly heterogeneous reasons for admission. Methods: There were 1303 patients (≥65 years old) contacted 12 months after discharge from the RACU. We obtained information about institutionalization, rehospitalization, and death. Predictors were all the demographic and clinical variables potentially related to these outcomes. The relationship among predictors and outcomes was tested with multiple stepwise logistic regression models. Results: Among the 1072 patients alive at the 12-month follow-up, 90 (8.4%) were institutionalized (3.4% early at discharge and 4.9% within the next period). The logistic regression analysis showed that 2 ranges of age (78 to 83 years and 84 years or more), living alone, occurrence of delirium, cognitive impairment (Mini Mental State Examination lower or equal to 20/30), and poor functional status at discharge (Barthel Index scores ranging from 69 to 85 and Barthel Index scores lower than 68/100) were independently and significantly associated with the risk of institutionalization during the 12 months following discharge from the RACU. Three hundred and twenty-three (30.1%) patients had been rehospitalized once and 86 (8.0%) patients twice at the 12-month follow-up. In the multivariate analysis, comorbidity (Charlson Index scores ranging from 2 to 3 and Charlson Index scores higher than 4) and delirium were significantly and independently associated with this outcome. One hundred and thirty-six (11.3%) patients had died by the 12-month follow-up. The stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that age greater than 83 years, poor functional status (Barthel Index lower than 60/100 at discharge), high comorbidity (Charlson Index scores ranging from 3 to 4 and Charlson Index scores higher than 4, respectively), and albumin serum levels ranging from 3.2 to 2.9 mg/dL and lower than 2.9 mg/dL independently and significantly predicted the 12-month risk of death. Absence of depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale

Background and aims: To evaluate whether and which clinical factors affect the regimen of physical therapy (PT) treatment in elderly patients after hip fracture (HF). Methods: HF patients consecutively admitted to a rehabilitation unit (from January 2002 to May 2004) without adverse clinical events on admission or during hospital stay were considered (n=80). All patients underwent multidimensional assessment including demographic, clinical, cognitive, affective and functional status. Outcome measure was the number of rehabilitative procedures (NRP), computed as the ratio between sum of rehabilitative procedures and length of hospital stay. Results: Patients received 3.8±1.3 NRP on average, although with large variability. Age and impairment of cognitive and pre-fracture functional status were significantly higher in those receiving fewer NRP. In a multiple regression model, only the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) significantly predicted NRP: compared with patients with MMSE ≤17 those with MMSE = 18-23, 24-26 and ≥27 received 0.3 (95% CI - 0.5-1.1, p=0.46), 1.5 (95% CI 0.6-2.4, p=0.001), and 1.6 (95% CI 0.7-2.5, p=0.001) more NRP. Conclusions: Cognitive performance affects NRP in elderly HF patients. Specific rehabilitative approaches, according to baseline cognitive performance, should be considered. © 2007, Editrice Kurtis.

The improvement in cognitive performances due to cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEls) is not homogeneous among Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects. Aim of this study is to evaluate whether a specific pattern of change in mini mental state examination (MMSE) could be observed in AD subjects after 9-month treatment with ChEls. From September 2000 to September 2002, 99 subjects enrolled in the CRONOS project. They have never been previously treated with ChEls. All of them completed both the 3- and the 9-month follow-up. The multidimensional assessment included MMSE, activity of daily living (ADL), instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), somatic health status, according to design of the CRONOS project. The MMSE was analyzed both as a total score and disaggregated in 11 items. All subjects were divided in 2 groups according to the degree of change in MMSE total score from baseline to the 9th month. Subjects with a change ≤ -1 were defined as non-responders (NR), whereas those with a change ≥0 as responders (R). At start, no statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups. MMSE score was significantly higher in the R group both at 3 (p < 0.0001) and 9 months (p < 0.0001), while functional status (ADL and IADL) was significantly lower in NR group at 9 months (p = 0.025; p = 0.018, respectively). In MMSE qualitative analysis of 3-month, NR significantly worsened in temporal (p ≤ 0.05) and spatial orientation (p ≤ 0.001), and in delayed recall items (p ≤ 0.0005) in comparison to their counterpart. At 9-month the differences between the 2 groups were observed also for registration (p < 0.001), attention (p ≥ 0.0005), obeying oral commands (p < 0.0005), reading and obeying commands (p ≤ 0.0005), writing a sentence (p ≤ 0.0005) and copying a design (p ≤ 0.05). In a multivariate regression model, after adjustment for demographic (age, education, gender) and clinical factors (duration of disease), only the change at 3 months in 5 MMSE items (temporal and spatial orientation, delayed recall, obeying an oral command and reading and obeying command) is associated with global cognitive change observed at 9 months. Data suggest that the change in cognitive performances of AD subjects treated with ChEls involves few and specific MMSE items at 3-month, while it tend to generalize to almost all the others at 9-month treatment.

We present a questionnaire-based survey on methods adopted in European autonomic nervous system (ANS) laboratories in the year 2002. Seventy-nine laboratories from 16 countries in Western and Eastern Europe provided information on test methods, equipment, staff, educational programme and research activities. The results confirmed the anticipated heterogeneity of techniques used to investigate ANS disorders. However, cardiovascular (84.8%) and sudomotor (43.0%) tests were the most common. There were no standards regarding equipment, but devices used varied widely, in part commercially available, in part self-developed. Some ANS laboratories performed cardiovascular tests using standard EMG devices with implemented routines to measure heart rate variability. Many investigators used published normative data (75.4%). Most of the responders were involved in scientific work, half were active in education of trainees. A wide variation was found in number and profession of staff members. As more than 60% of questionnaires were returned by neurologists our results may be limited to neurological ANS laboratories. Given the wide variation of methods and equipment used in European ANS laboratories, minimal standards for routine ANS testing are desirable. Standards may help to compare results of diagnostic tests, evaluate equipment and test laboratory methods and commercial devices and set-up educational programmes.

To the Editor: In their article recently published in the Journal, Mast and colleagues (1) suggest that executive dysfunctions modulated the relationship between cerebrovascular risk factors and depressive symptoms in a population of 77 elderly patients admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation hospital. We would like to contribute to this topic with our own personal data referring to a similar population of 209 elderly patients admitted to a Rehabilitation and Aged Care Unit from March 20001 to March 2004. Patients were selected among those who consecutively underwent a neuropsychological examination because they were suspected of having a cognitive impairment, were aged 65 years or older, and had a computed tomography (CT) of the brain. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (2). The presence and severity of cortical, white matter, and deep subcortical lesions and of leukoaraiosis were assessed on CT film with a standardized visual rating scale, which has been previously validated and used in elderly patients (3,4). With this method, the patients were quantitatively divided into two groups (50th percentile) according to the severity of subcortical cerebrovascular disease (sCVD): One hundred four patients had none or mild, and 105 had moderate or severe sCVD. Table 1 shows that patients in the group with higher sCVD were older, more depressed, and more deteriorated both in global cognitive (as evaluated with the Mini-Mental State Examination) and in executive functions (lower performances on semantic verbal fluency and higher percentage of perseverative errors). Furthermore, they had significantly lower performances in comparison to the other group on the test measuring sustained attention. Our data support the hypothesis that sCVD is etiologically involved in the relationship between depressive symptoms and executive dysfunctions in elderly persons. This is particularly relevant to the model proposed by Mast and colleagues because they did not use neuroimaging data, as acknowledged in the limitations of their study. Indeed, neuroimaging is necessary to confirm the vascular etiology, because presence of cardiovascular risk factors does not automatically mean presence of cerebrovascular disease. Although T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is the most sensitive instrument to detect sCVD in the brain, the use of a CT-based rating scale has been repeatedly shown to be reliable and specific (3,4); furthermore the scale offers the advantage to be low cost and easy to do even in low-technology settings (such as rehabilitation units). We suggest that a systematic rating of the subcortical vascular lesions on CT brain will become a routine procedure in the study of the relationship between sCVD, depression, and executive dysfunctions.

Background. Delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) is highly prevalent and associated with high mortality among hospitalized elderly patients, yet little is known about the effect of DSD on midterm mortality. The purpose of this study was to assess 12-month survival in patients with DSD and matched groups with dementia alone, delirium alone, or neither delirium nor dementia. Methods. Among 1278 consecutively admitted elderly participants (aged >65 years) to our Rehabilitation Unit between January 2002 and May 2005, four matched samples of 47 participants each (DSD, dementia alone, delirium alone, or neither delirium nor dementia) were selected. Matching was based on age, gender, and reason for admission. Postdischarge 12-month survival was assessed in the four groups with Kaplan-Meyer analysis and compared with Cox proportional hazard regression models adjusted for confounders. Results. Survival was significantly lower for DSD patients than for the other three groups. After adjustment for comorbidity and Barthel Index score before admission, patients with DSD had significantly higher mortality (hazard ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-5.5; p = .04) than did patients with neither delirium nor dementia. Conclusions. Demented patients who experienced delirium during hospitalization had a more than twofold increased risk of mortality in the 12 months following discharge than did patients with dementia alone, with delirium alone, or with neither dementia nor delirium. Copyright 2007 by The Gerontological Society of America.