Special considerations for geriatric therapeutic drug monitoring.

1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 1337-1341 ◽  
Author(s):  
T M Annesley

Abstract Numerous physiological changes during the normal aging process can potentially affect how drugs are handled by the body. Gastrointestinal changes include increased gastric pH, decreased intestinal motility, and decreased blood perfusion. Age-related changes in body composition and protein concentrations in plasma contribute to alterations in the distribution of drugs. Hepatic metabolism of drugs may be affected, and renal excretion via glomerular filtration or tubular secretion is diminished. The importance of each of these physiological changes in the elderly, as well as the contribution of multi-drug therapy and other external factors, is discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 640-642
Author(s):  
Halil Onder

AbstractGait disorders are common in the elderly as there are various causes of neurological and non-neurological conditions. On the other hand, most of the gait parameters do change with advancing age which is identified as age-related physiological changes in gait. At this point, the discrimination between age-related physiological changes and gait disorders may be strictly challenging. After identifying gait as an abnormal pattern, classification of it and making the responsible pathophysiology also require high-level expertise in this regard. Herein, we present a rare patient with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) who had admitted initially due to complaints of gait problems. Over a long time, the patient had received the misdiagnosis of gait abnormality due to musculoskeletal problems by multiple physicians. However, the detailed neurological exam showed a higher level gait disorder (HLGD). Further investigations at this point yielded the diagnosis of CBD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 03023
Author(s):  
Olga Dilekova ◽  
Cristina Pavlova ◽  
Valentina Shpygova ◽  
Nikolai Agarkov ◽  
Vladislav Porublyov

In domestic animals in postnatal ontogenesis, statistically significant changes in the number of α-endocrinocytes and the values of their nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio in the endocrine islets of pancreas have been revealed, which reflects the species and age-related dynamic processes of its morphofunctional development in animals. In cattle and small cattle (sheep), pigs, dogs and cats, two critical periods of postnatal development of the pancreas have been identified. The first critical period is observed from the birth to the age of three months. It is associated with an alimentary factor: the transition from a dairy diet to roughage, which leads to a decrease in the values of morphometric indicators of the pancreas and the restructuring of the functional work of the organ as a whole. The second critical period is registered in animals during puberty, that is, at 6 months of age, which is associated with the release of hormonal inducers aimed primarily at the implementation of physiological changes in the body.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto P. Casani ◽  
Elena Navari

Disequilibrium is one of the most common complaints that older adults bring to their physician and falling is a frequent complication; because of the increasing number of elderly patients in western society the problem grows. The increasing susceptibility to falling can be consequence of age-related physiological changes and of a higher prevalence of comorbidities causing dizziness, vertigo and imbalance; these symptoms can worse the already poor balance of old adults increasing the risk of falling. Among the major reasons of vertigo and dizziness, central vertigo and orthostatic vertigo are very common; also vestibular disorders have a great role and are currently thought to account for 48% of dizziness reported by older adults. An early identification of the treatable condition underlying dizziness in elderly would surely ameliorate the outcome of these patients.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meizhen Huang ◽  
Kit-lun Yick ◽  
Sun-pui Ng ◽  
Joanne Yip ◽  
Roy Cheung

Abstract Background: Diminished somatosensory function and lower plantar cutaneous sensitivity have been identified as a critical age-related change, which is related to postural instability in the older population. Footwear is suggested that can modulate the postural stability by altering the interface between the foot sole and the ground. However, it is unclear whether this footwear effect could also influence lower limb muscle activation for the elderly. This study aimed to investigate the footwear insole texture and supporting surface condition on static postural stability and lower limb muscle activation for healthy older people. Methods: This is a single-session study with repeated measurements. Twenty-three healthy older female stood on the firm (i.e., concrete floor) and foam surfaces with their eyes open in the three footwear conditions, namely barefoot, plain shoes and nodulous insole shoes, for 30 seconds. Static postural sway and muscle activation of biceps femoris (BF), vastus lateralis (VL), tibialis anterior (TA), and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) of the dominant leg were measured during each testing condition. Results: compared to firm surface, standing on the foam could significantly increase the body sway and lower limb muscle activation (p<0.05); compared to barefoot, when standing on the foam, wearing footwear significantly decreased the VL and TA muscle activation and minimize the postural sway in ML and AP direction, while the influence is larger for the nodulous shoes compared to the plain shoes. A positive correlation was observed between the lower limb muscle activation and AP (r=0.327-0.389, p<0.001) and total sway path length (r=0.317-0.427, p<0.001). Conclusions: footwear could improve the postural stability and decease the fall risk comparing to barefoot when the somatosensory input is in disturbance, while the improvement is larger when wearing nodulous insole footwear for the elderly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1504-1512
Author(s):  
Güler ÖZTÜRK ◽  
Kazime Gonca AKBULUT ◽  
Şevin GÜNEY

The aim of this review is to summarize current studies on the relationship between melatonin and aging. Nowadays, age-related diseases come into prominence, and identifying age-related changes and developing proper therapeutic approaches are counted as some of the major issues regarding community health. Melatonin is the main hormone of the pineal gland. Melatonin is known to influence many biological processes in the body, including circadian rhythms, the immune system, and neuroendocrine and cardiovascular functions.Melatoninrhythms also reflect the biological process of aging. Aging is an extremely complex and multifactorial process. Melatonin levels decline considerably with aging and its decline is associated with several age-related diseases. Aging is closely associated with oxidative damage and mitochondrial dysfunction. Free radical reactions initiated by the mitochondria constitute the inherent aging process. Melatonin plays a pivotal role in preventing age-related oxidative stress. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) fatality rates increase with chronic diseases and age, where melatonin levels decrease. For this reason, melatonin supplementation in elderly could be beneficial in COVID-19 treatment. Therefore, studies on the usage of melatonin in COVID-19 treatment are needed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 153 (S3) ◽  
pp. 105-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Feighner ◽  
William F. Boyer ◽  
Charles H. Meredith ◽  
Gordon Hendrickson

During the past 75 years, the proportion of elderly individuals in the USA has grown twice as fast as the general population. Depression in this age-group occurs four times more frequently than in the general population (Butler, 1975), and the suicide rate for people over 65 years of age is 15 times greater than that of the general population (Lehman, 1980).The elderly may be more susceptible to depression due to biological and/or psychosocial variables. Elderly people experience significant losses associated with increasing age, including death of spouse and friends, loss of work, social status, and physical and mental abilities (Lehman, 1980). The biogenic amine hypothesis suggests that the aging brain may experience a decrease in the functional availability of neurotransmitters (Lehman, 1980); this decrease may also play a role in the aetiology of depression.Due to age-related changes in the body, the elderly can be more sensitive to drug therapy. Older patients may require careful dosage adjustments and may also be more prone to experiencing drug-related adverse events. The elderly often receive medication for various indications, and drug interactions are a concern (Thompson et al, 1983). Therefore, efficacy and safety studies of new antidepressants in elderly patients are particularly important. We pooled data from both double-blind and open-label studies to evaluate the efficacy and safety of fluoxetine in geriatric outpatients with DSM-III major depression. Positive results of fluoxetine in the treatment of geriatric depression were reported in one of these studies (Feighner & Cohn, 1985). The favourable safety and side-effect profile of fluoxetine in the general population has been discussed elsewhere (Wernicke, 1985). Plasma concentrations of fluoxetine in elderly subjects are similar to those in younger individuals (I.emberger et al, 1985). These findings, combined with a lack of cardiovascular effects (Fisch, 1985), and low lethality with overdose, indicated promise for fluoxetine as a geriatric antidepressant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lengnan Xu ◽  
Yonghui Mao ◽  
Aiqun Chen ◽  
Ban Zhao

Abstract Background and Aims The kidney is an important organ that removes metabolites and certain wastes and poisons from the body, and retains water and other useful substances through reabsorption. Its aging and function decline have a significant impact on the human health.Rather than simply depending on serum creatinine, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) assessment equation should be given priority in evaluating renal function. Different evaluated GFR (eGFR) equations sometimes have great differences in assessing the true value of GFR, especially for the elderly. The purpose of this study was to analyze the aging changes of renal function in normal people in Beijing and to compare the significance of different eGFR equations in evaluating renal function in Chinese population. Method The age, sex and serum creatinine were recorded in the population who underwent routine physical examination in our hospital from January 2012 to December 2014. Kidney function was assessed by CKD-EPI, MDRD, MDRDc, FAS and BIS equations, respectively. Results A total of 46 713 persons were enrolled in this study, of whom 27 249 (58.33%) were males. They were followed up for 3 years, ranging in age from 16 to 100 years. Both men and women showed age-related change in serum creatinine: serum creatinine and its standard deviation gradually increases parallel with age, indicating that the range of serum creatinine changes in the elderly was larger. Whether male or female, there were differences in eGFR change between different age groups (male: Χ2=141.28, P=0.000; female: Χ2=97.55, P=0.000). For male, eGFR decreased more in the elderly, and it was more common for young people to keep the eGFR constant or increase. However, in female, eGFR remained unchanged in most old people, and increased or decreased in the majority of the young. For all age groups, the ICC was very consistent among the equations, 0.849 for males and 0.817 for females. The whole population was divided into three groups according to serum creatinine &lt; 1mg/dL, &gt; 1mg/dL and &lt; 1.5mg/dL, &gt; 1.5mg/dL. The CKD-EPI equation gave higher stages of CKD than other equations. There was no clear age-related change trend in the 3-year average eGFR change rate of all age groups. For the elderly over 70 years of age, the MDRD and MDRDc equations had higher GFR evaluation results than the other three equations. The BIS equation had the lowest results of all equations. The ICC was very consistent among the equations, 0.966 for males and 0.957 for females. Conclusion we believed that the annual change of GFR varied from person to person and had little to do with age. GFR needed to be calculated more accurately in order to formulate corresponding medical strategies. Those eGFR equations the above-mentioned can be used to evaluate renal function, but the results were very different for different populations and serum creatinine levels. The use of different eGFR equations may lead to large differences in drug dose adjustment and the risk of serious adverse reactions. For the elderly in China, which equation was more suitable was inconclusive and further research was urgently needed.


2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rania D. Kovaiou ◽  
Dietmar Herndler-Brandstetter ◽  
Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein

Average life expectancy is continuously rising in all developed countries, leading to an ever-increasing elderly population. Of the many functions of the body affected by the complex process of ageing, the immune system in particular undergoes various changes, collectively termed immunosenescence. As a result, elderly people are more susceptible to infections and are frequently less protected by vaccines. This review summarises the effect of ageing on immunity, emphasising the age-associated changes within T and B cells at a molecular and cellular level. Furthermore, it discusses strategies, such as the addition of immunostimulatory adjuvants and the use of potent antigen-delivery systems, that may counteract age-related defects in immune responses to vaccination. A proper understanding of how immunological memory is affected by ageing, and the introduction of strategies to ameliorate vaccine efficacy in the elderly, might reduce the incidence and the severity of infectious disease within this fragile age group and have a strong impact on the quality of life of elderly individuals.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janusz Blasiak ◽  
Goran Petrovski ◽  
Zoltán Veréb ◽  
Andrea Facskó ◽  
Kai Kaarniranta

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe and irreversible loss of vision in the elderly in developed countries. AMD is a complex chronic neurodegenerative disease associated with many environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors. Oxidative stress and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) seem to play a pivotal role in AMD pathogenesis. It is known that the macula receives the highest blood flow of any tissue in the body when related to size, and anything that can reduce the rich blood supply can cause hypoxia, malfunction, or disease. Oxidative stress can affect both the lipid rich retinal outer segment structure and the light processing in the macula. The response to oxidative stress involves several cellular defense reactions, for example, increases in antioxidant production and proteolysis of damaged proteins. The imbalance between production of damaged cellular components and degradation leads to the accumulation of detrimental products, for example, intracellular lipofuscin and extracellular drusen. Autophagy is a central lysosomal clearance system that may play an important role in AMD development. There are many anatomical changes in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), Bruch’s membrane, and choriocapillaris in response to chronic oxidative stress, hypoxia, and disturbed autophagy and these are estimated to be crucial components in the pathology of neovascular processes in AMD.


1997 ◽  
Vol XXIX (3-4) ◽  
pp. 95-97
Author(s):  
Е. A. Antipenko ◽  
L. M. Anisimova ◽  
А. V. Deryugina ◽  
А. V. Gustov ◽  
V. N. Krylov

Difficulties in treating discirculatory encephalopathy (DE) in the elderly are caused by a combination of degenerative and vascular processes, which mutually burden each other. The development of the disease against the background of natural aging of the body makes it necessary to take into account age-related changes in the reactivity of the body, a decrease in its adaptive capabilities, and a violation of the mechanisms of autoregulation [6]. This whole complex of pathological changes requires a special therapeutic approach that considers the body as a single functional system. It can be assumed that drugs of a non-specific plan will be effective, mobilizing the internal reserves of an aging organism.


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