42 research outputs found
Early Prediction of In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with Acute Infections: Development of the Acute Severity Infection Score (ASIs)
Introduction: Early prognostic stratification in patients hospitalized for acute infections is a major clinical challenge. Existing tools, such as the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), were not specifically developed for this purpose. Objectives: We aimed to design a novel multidimensional prognostic score, the Acute Severity Infection score (ASIs), to predict in-hospital mortality using routinely available clinical data. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 149 adults admitted with acute infections to an internal medicine unit between January 2023 and December 2024. In-hospital all-cause mortality was the primary outcome. Demographic, clinical and laboratory variables obtained within 12 h of admission were analyzed. Variables significantly associated with mortality in both univariate and multivariate regression were incorporated into the ASIs, which ranges from 0 to 7 points. Its performance was compared to SOFA and CCI using ROC curve and Cox regression models. Results: In-hospital mortality occurred in 25.5% of patients. Five variables were independently associated with mortality: lactate ≥ 2.2 mmol/l, frailty composite (confined to bed status, long-term oxygen therapy or advanced malignancy), hemodynamic instability or need for non-invasive ventilation, age ≥ 79.5 years and symptom onset ≥ 3.5 days before admission. ASIs showed the highest discriminative ability (AUC = 0.883) compared to SOFA (AUC = 0.612) and CCI (AUC = 0.742). In multivariate models including all three scores, only ASIs retained independent prognostic significance. Conclusions: The ASIs is a simple tool for early prognostic stratification of patients hospitalized with acute infections. It outperforms existing scores and may enhance clinical decision-making in real-world medical settings
The multifaceted spectrum of liver cirrhosis in older hospitalised patients: analysis of the REPOSI registry
Knowledge on the main clinical and prognostic characteristics of older multimorbid subjects with liver cirrhosis (LC) admitted to acute medical wards is scarce
Relation between drug therapy-based comorbidity indices, Charlson's comorbidity index, polypharmacy and mortality in three samples of older adults
Background: Comorbidity indexes were designed in order to measure how the disease burden of a patient is related to different clinical outcomes such as mortality, especially in older and intensively treated people. Charlson's Comorbidity Index (CCI) is the most widely used rating system, based on diagnoses, but when this information is not available therapy-based comorbidity indices (TBCI) are an alternative: among them, Drug Derived Complexity Index (DDCI), Medicines Comorbidity Index (MCI), and Chronic Disease Score (CDS) are available.
Aims: This study assessed the predictive power for 1-year mortality of these comorbidity indices and polypharmacy.
Methods: Survival analysis and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis were conducted on three Italian cohorts: 2,389 nursing home residents (Korian), 4,765 and 633 older adults admitted acutely to geriatric or internal medicine wards (REPOSI and ELICADHE).
Results: Cox's regression indicated that the highest levels of the CCI are associated with an increment of 1-year mortality risk as compared to null score for all the three samples. DDCI and excessive polypharmacy gave similar results but MCI and CDS were not always statistically significant. The predictive power with the ROC curve of each comorbidity index was poor and similar in all settings.
Conclusion: On the whole, comorbidity indices did not perform well in our three settings, although the highest level of each index was associated with higher mortality
Clinical features and outcomes of elderly hospitalised patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure or both
Background and objective
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) mutually increase the risk of being present in the same patient, especially if older. Whether or not this coexistence may be associated with a worse prognosis is debated. Therefore, employing data derived from the REPOSI register, we evaluated the clinical features and outcomes in a population of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine wards and having COPD, HF or COPD + HF.
Methods
We measured socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, severity and prevalence of comorbidities, clinical and laboratory features during hospitalization, mood disorders, functional independence, drug prescriptions and discharge destination. The primary study outcome was the risk of death.
Results
We considered 2,343 elderly hospitalized patients (median age 81 years), of whom 1,154 (49%) had COPD, 813 (35%) HF, and 376 (16%) COPD + HF. Patients with COPD + HF had different characteristics than those with COPD or HF, such as a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations, comorbidities (especially chronic kidney disease), higher respiratory rate at admission and number of prescribed drugs. Patients with COPD + HF (hazard ratio HR 1.74, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.16-2.61) and patients with dementia (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.90) had a higher risk of death at one year. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher mortality risk in the group of patients with COPD + HF for all causes (p = 0.010), respiratory causes (p = 0.006), cardiovascular causes (p = 0.046) and respiratory plus cardiovascular causes (p = 0.009).
Conclusion
In this real-life cohort of hospitalized elderly patients, the coexistence of COPD and HF significantly worsened prognosis at one year. This finding may help to better define the care needs of this population
Pain and Frailty in Hospitalized Older Adults
Pain and frailty are prevalent conditions in the older population. Many chronic diseases are likely involved in their origin, and both have a negative impact on quality of life. However, few studies have analysed their association
Use of Lipid-Lowering Drugs and Associated Outcomes According to Health State Profiles in Hospitalized Older Patients
Objective: To assess how lipid-lowering drugs (LLDs) are administered in the hospitalized patients aged 65 and older and their association with clinical outcomes according to their health-related profiles.
Design: This is a retrospective study based on data from REPOSI (REgistro POliterapie SIMI - Italian Society of Internal Medicine) register, an Italian network of internal medicine hospital wards.
Setting and participants: A total of 4642 patients with a mean age of 79 years enrolled between 2010 and 2018.
Methods: Socio-demographic characteristics, functional abilities, cognitive skills, laboratory parameters and comorbidities were used to investigate the health state profiles by using multiple correspondence analysis and clustering. Logistic regression was used to assess whether LLD prescription was associated with patients' health state profiles and with short-term mortality.
Results: Four clusters of patients were identified according to their health state: two of them (Cluster III and IV) were the epitome of frailty conditions with poor short-term outcomes, whereas the others included healthier patients. The average prevalence of LLD use was 27.6%. The lowest prevalence was found among the healthier patients in Cluster I and among the oldest frail patients with severe functional and cognitive impairment in Cluster IV. The highest prevalence was among multimorbid patients in Cluster III (OR=4.50, 95% CI=3.76-5.38) characterized by a high cardiovascular risk. Being prescribed with LLDs was associated with a lower 3-month mortality, even after adjusting for cluster assignment (OR=0.59; 95% CI = 0.44-0.80).
Conclusion: The prevalence of LLD prescription was low and in overall agreement with guideline recommendations and with respect to patients' health state profiles
Comparison between drug therapy-based comorbidity indices and the Charlson Comorbidity Index for the detection of severe multimorbidity in older subjects
Background: To know burden disease of a patient is a key point for clinical practice and research, especially in the elderly. Charlson's Comorbidity Index (CCI) is the most widely used rating system, but when diagnoses are not available therapy-based comorbidity indices (TBCI) are an alternative. However, their performance is debated. This study compares the relations between Drug Derived Complexity Index (DDCI), Medicines Comorbidity Index (MCI), Chronic Disease Score (CDS), and severe multimorbidity, according to the CCI classification, in the elderly.
Methods: Logistic regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis were conducted on two samples from Italy: 2579 nursing home residents (Korian sample) and 7505 older adults admitted acutely to geriatric or internal medicine wards (REPOSI sample).
Results: The proportion of subjects with severe comorbidity rose with TBCI score increment, but the Area Under the Curve (AUC) for the CDS (Korian: 0.70, REPOSI: 0.79) and MCI (Korian: 0.69, REPOSI: 0.81) were definitely better than the DDCI (Korian: 0.66, REPOSI: 0.74). All TBCIs showed low Positive Predictive Values (maximum: 0.066 in REPOSI and 0.317 in Korian) for the detection of severe multimorbidity.
Conclusion: CDS and MCI were better predictors of severe multimorbidity in older adults than DDCI, according to the CCI classification. A high CCI score was related to a high TBCI. However, the opposite is not necessarily true probably because of non-evidence-based prescriptions or physicians' prescribing attitudes. TBCIs did not appear selective for detecting of severe multimorbidity, though they could be used as a measure of disease burden, in the absence of other solutions
Underdiagnosis and undertreatment of osteoporotic patients admitted in internal medicine wards in Italy between 2010 and 2016 (the REPOSI Register)
To evaluate clinical features, treatments, and outcomes of osteoporotic patients admitted to internal medicine and geriatric wards compared with non-osteoporotic patients (REPOSI registry)
Low serum albumin is associated with mortality and arterial and venous ischemic events in acutely ill medical patients. Results of a retrospective observational study
Background: In general population hypoalbuminemia is associated with poor survival. Aim of this study was to assess the impact of hypoalbuminemia on mortality and venous and arterial ischemic events in hospitalized acutely ill medical patients.
Patients and methods: Retrospective observational analysis from the "REgistro POliterapie SIMI" (REPOSI). Patients were followed up to 12 months. Serum albumin was obtained in each patient. Mortality and ischemic events were registered throughout the follow-up period.
Results: In the entire population including 4152 patients, median levels of serum albumin were 3.4 g/dL and 2193 patients (52.8 %) had levels ≤3.4 g/dL. Cases with albumin ≤3.4 g/dL were older, frailer, had more comorbidities and were most frequently underweight than those with serum albumin >3.4 g/dL. During the 12-month follow-up, all-cause mortality was 14.8 % (613 patients), with a higher rate in cases with serum albumin ≤3.4 g/dL (459, 20.9 % vs 154, 7.9 % in those with serum albumin >3.4 g/dL; p < 0.0001). During follow-up 121 ischemic events (2.9 %) were registered, 86 (71.1) arterial and 35 (28.9 %) venous. Proportional hazard analysis showed that patients with albumin ≤3.4 g/dL had a higher chance of dying. Furthermore, patients with albumin ≤3.4 g/dL had a higher likelihood of experiencing ischemic events.
Conclusions: Acutely ill hospitalized medical patients with serum levels ≤3.4 g/dL are at higher risk of all-cause mortality and ischemic events, measurement of albumin may help to identify hospitalized patients with a poorer prognosis
Beta-Blocker Use in Older Hospitalized Patients Affected by Heart Failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Italian Survey From the REPOSI Register
Beta (β)-blockers (BB) are useful in reducing morbidity and mortality in patients with heart failure (HF) and concomitant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Nevertheless, the use of BBs could induce bronchoconstriction due to β2-blockade. For this reason, both the ESC and GOLD guidelines strongly suggest the use of selective β1-BB in patients with HF and COPD. However, low adherence to guidelines was observed in multiple clinical settings. The aim of the study was to investigate the BBs use in older patients affected by HF and COPD, recorded in the REPOSI register. Of 942 patients affected by HF, 47.1% were treated with BBs. The use of BBs was significantly lower in patients with HF and COPD than in patients affected by HF alone, both at admission and at discharge (admission, 36.9% vs. 51.3%; discharge, 38.0% vs. 51.7%). In addition, no further BB users were found at discharge. The probability to being treated with a BB was significantly lower in patients with HF also affected by COPD (adj. OR, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.37-0.67), while the diagnosis of COPD was not associated with the choice of selective β1-BB (adj. OR, 95% CI: 1.33, 0.76-2.34). Despite clear recommendations by clinical guidelines, a significant underuse of BBs was also observed after hospital discharge. In COPD affected patients, physicians unreasonably reject BBs use, rather than choosing a β1-BB. The expected improvement of the BB prescriptions after hospitalization was not observed. A multidisciplinary approach among hospital physicians, general practitioners, and pharmacologists should be carried out for better drug management and adherence to guideline recommendations
