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Introduction A precise quantitative measurement of skeletal muscle mass is fundamental for diagnosing sarcopenia in older individuals. The current techniques of assessment, including dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), bioimpedance analysis (BIA), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are either difficult to perform in everyday clinical practice or biased by concurrent clinical confounders. B-mode muscle ultrasound can be helpful in assessing muscle mass and architecture, and thus possibly useful for diagnosing or screening sarcopenia. Methods A literature search of published articles on muscle ultrasound and sarcopenia in older individuals as of July 31, 2016, was made on PubMed and Scopus. Manual search and cross-referencing from reviews and original articles was also performed. Results Most of the existing studies were carried out on healthy well-fit subjects, with a low prevalence of sarcopenia. The main parameters that can be assessed through muscle ultrasound are muscle thickness, cross-sectional area, echo intensity, and, for pennate muscles, fascicle length and pennation angle. In older subjects, all these parameters show some degree of alteration compared to young adults, particularly in lower limb muscles with antigravitary function, such as the quadriceps femoris and gastrocnemius medialis. Each of these parameters may be theoretically useful for detecting the loss of muscle mass and functionality in geriatric patients. They are also poorly influenced by the presence of acute and chronic diseases and fluid balance, unlike DXA and BIA, but a high degree of standardization in ultrasound protocols is necessary. Frontier applications of ultrasound in the assessment of sarcopenia may include contrast-enhanced and diaphragm ultrasound. Conclusions The current literature does not allow to make conclusive recommendations about the use of muscle ultrasound in geriatric practice. However, this technique is very promising, and further studies should validate its applications in the context of sarcopenia assessment.

The availability of family caregivers of older people is decreasing in Italy as the number of migrant care workers (MCWs) hired by families increases. There is little evidence on the influence of socioeconomic factors in the employment of MCWs.We analyzed baseline data from 438 older people with moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), and their family caregivers enrolled in the Up-Tech trial. We used bivariate analysis and multilevel regressions to investigate the association between independent variables-education, social class, and the availability of a care allowance-and three outcomes-employment of a MCW, hours of care provided by the primary family caregiver, and by the family network (primary and other family caregivers).The availability of a care allowance and the educational level were independently associated with employing MCWs. A significant interaction between education and care allowance was found, suggesting that more educated families are more likely to spend the care allowance to hire a MCW.Socioeconomic inequalities negatively influenced access both to private care and to care allowance, leading disadvantaged families to directly provide more assistance to AD patients. Care allowance entitlement needs to be reformed in Italy and in countries with similar long-term care and migration systems.

Introduction: The impact of gender on outcome in critically ill patients is unclear. We investigated the influence of gender on the epidemiology of severe sepsis and associated morbidity and mortality in a large cohort of ICU patients in the region of Piedmont in Italy.Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of data from a prospective, multicenter, observational study in which all patients admitted to one of 24 participating medical and/or surgical ICUs between 3 April 2006 and 29 September 2006 were included.Results: Of the 3,902 patients included in the study, 63.5% were male. Female patients were significantly older than male patients (66 ± 16 years vs. 63 ± 16 years, P < 0.001). Female patients were less likely to have severe sepsis and septic shock on admission to the ICU and to develop these syndromes during the ICU stay. ICU mortality was similar in men and women in the whole cohort (20.1% vs. 19.8%, P = 0.834), but in patients with severe sepsis was significantly greater in women than in men (63.5% vs. 46.4%, P = 0.007). In multivariate logistic regression analysis with ICU outcome as the dependent variable, female gender was independently associated with a higher risk of ICU death in patients with severe sepsis (odds ratio = 2.33, 95% confidence interval = 1.23 to 4.39, P = 0.009) but not in the whole cohort (odds ratio = 1.07, 95% confidence interval = 0.87 to 1.34).Conclusion: In this large regional Italian cohort of ICU patients, there were more male than female admissions. The prevalence of severe sepsis was lower in women than in men, but female gender was independently associated with a higher risk of death in the ICU for patients with severe sepsis. © 2013 Sakr et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.