Elder Care Information

Simple tests such as walking speed and hand grip strength may help doctors determine how likely it is a middle-aged person will develop dementia or stroke.

A new scoring method can help doctors quickly decide which stroke patients will respond well to the clot-busting drug alteplase, according to a new study.

A genetic variant that increases the risk of a common type of stroke has been identified by scientists. This is one of the few genetic variants to date to be associated with risk of stroke and the discovery opens up new possibilities for treatment.

A new drug that showed promise in animal studies and an early clinical trial didn't improve disability among stroke patients, according to new research.

An experimental blood clot-removing device outperformed the FDA-approved MERCI; retriever device, according to new research.

The traditional risk factors for stroke – such as high cholesterol – are not as accurate at predicting risk in postmenopausal women as previously thought. Instead, researchers say doctors should refocus their attention on triglyceride levels to determine which women are at highest risk of suffering a devastating and potentially fatal cardiovascular event.

Neurologists report success with a new means of getting rid of potentially lethal blood clots in the brain safely without cutting through easily damaged brain tissue or removing large pieces of skull.

The disparity in stroke-related deaths among black and white children dramatically narrowed after prevention strategies changed to include ultrasound screening and chronic blood transfusions for children with sickle cell anemia, according to new research.

Occasional erratic heart rhythms appear to cause about one-fifth of strokes for which a cause is not readily established.

Being anemic could more than triple your risk of dying within a year after having a stroke, according to new research.

People with severe sleep apnea may have an increased risk of silent strokes and small lesions in the brain, according to a small study.

Clot-busting drugs may be safe for patients who wake up experiencing stroke symptoms, according to preliminary research.

Common infections in children pose a high risk of ischemic stroke, according to new research. In a review of 2.5 million children, the researchers identified 126 childhood ischemic stroke cases and then randomly selected 378 age-matched controls from the remaining children without stroke. They discovered that 29 percent of those who suffered a stroke had a medical encounter for infection in the two days preceding the stroke versus one percent of controls during the same dates.

Severe, rapid memory loss may be linked to -- and could predict -- a future deadly stroke, according to new research.

A new position statement issued by the American Academy of Neurology calls on neurologists to begin screening their patients for abusive or violent treatment by family, caretakers or others. Types of abuse include elder abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, cyberbullying and violence.

For most heart and stroke patients, it's probably safe to have sex. "For a patient who has sex with a familiar partner in a familiar setting, sexual activity generally is safe and no more strenuous than golf," a cardiologist said.

Job stress and shift work have a lot more to do with obesity among nurses than previously thought, according to a new study.

Experts question the concept of the ‘overactive bladder syndrome’. According to researchers, the definition of this syndrome is mostly beneficial to those with commercial interests, while from the patient perspective and for the development of treatments, it may be detrimental.

Silent atrial fibrillation is very common and may be the cause of many strokes that previously could not be explained. In all, atrial fibrillation may be responsible for nearly one in five strokes.

Exposure to light appears to have therapeutic effects on Alzheimer's disease patients, a researcher has found.

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients improved between 2003 and 2008, according to a new study. The study found Asian-Americans and whites received about the same level of care, and that differences in care between the two groups decreased over time. The study is significant because little is known about the treatment and outcomes of Asian-Americans who've suffered a heart attack.

In the first large study of its kind, researchers find that electronic health records are important tools for improvements in nursing care and health outcomes.

Scientists find that a method of positron emission tomography safely and accurately detects dementia, including the most common and devastating form among the elderly, Alzheimer's disease.

A new program, which was created by health care professionals two decades ago in an effort to ensure the wishes of those with advanced illness are followed, has now spread to 34 states in the United States.

Bedside clinical evaluation can be optimized to diagnose spatial neglect, a disabling disorder that impedes recovery after stroke, according to stroke specialists. Often overlooked, it is associated with prolonged hospital stays, accidents, falls, safety problems and chronic functional disability. Early recognition and targeted cognitive rehabilitation may improve outcomes for the 30-50 percent of stroke survivors with this hidden disability that can be more disabling than paralysis.

Although minimally invasive treatments for patients with peripheral arterial disease result in shorter hospital stays and the potential to save Medicare millions of dollars each year, a new study reveals that the quality of care and cost depend on who's providing the treatment.

Bingo, a popular activity in nursing homes, senior centers and assisted-living facilities, has benefits that extend well beyond socializing. Researchers found high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Demographics and clinical factors appear to be associated with survival in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), and the presence of dementia is associated with a significant increase in mortality, according to a new report.

New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly.

A survey of nurses and physicians in intensive care units (ICUs) in Europe and Israel indicated that the perception of inappropriate care, such as excess intensity of care for a patient, was common, and that these perceptions were associated with inadequate decision sharing, communication and job autonomy, according to a new study.

Despite improvements to diagnostic tools and therapies in the two last decades, significant disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of depression remain, according to new research.

Patients need less blood after surgery than is widely thought. A new study comparing two plans for giving blood transfusions following surgery showed no ill effects from postponing transfusion until patients develop signs of anemia or their hemoglobin concentration falls below 8 g/dL.

A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer's disease, based on the findings of a new study.

Imagine waking up and being unable to see or recognize anything on the left side of your body. This condition, called hemispatial neglect, is common after a stroke that occurs on the right side of the brain. The current treatment of attention and concentration training using computer and pencil-and-paper tasks is inadequate.

A method of classifying brain atrophy patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients using MRIs can also detect cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease, according to a new study. Researchers also found that higher baseline Alzheimer's patterns of atrophy predicted long-term cognitive decline in cognitively normal Parkinson's patients. The study is published online in Brain.

Blood pressure medicines reduced the risk of stroke by 22 percent in people with prehypertension. More than 50 million Americans have an increased risk of stroke due to prehypertension.

A new study sought to determine if breast reconstruction after mastectomy is safe for older women. The answer is yes.

Researchers have just begun a three-year project, which uses robots to help people to recover from strokes.

A new research report shows how scientists from the United Kingdom have developed a simple blood test to detect Parkinson's disease even at the earliest stages. The test is possible because scientists found a substance in the blood, called "phosphorylated alpha-synuclein," which is common in people with Parkinson's disease, and then developed a way to identify its presence in our blood.

Studies have shown that people who are overweight in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later than people at normal weight, yet researchers have also found that people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease are more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI). A current study examines this relationship between Alzheimer's disease and BMI.

A new national plan of action provides a roadmap for improving the care of patients with delirium, a poorly understood and often unrecognized brain condition that affects approximately seven million hospitalized Americans each year.

A recent study shows an increased risk of stroke and mortality among patients diagnosed with severe sepsis and new-onset atrial fibrillation during hospitalization.

Among patients who experienced an ischemic stroke, systolic blood pressure levels of less than 120 mm Hg, or higher than 140 mm Hg, were associated with an increased risk of subsequent stroke, according to a new study.

The odds of having heart failure appear to be higher in seniors with a low income -- even among those with a college or higher education -- according to new research.

Professional tooth scaling was associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes in a recent study from Taiwan.

A new study finds that people 75 years old or older are less likely to receive any pain medication in hospital emergency departments than people between 35 and 54 years old.

Having a transient ischemic attack (TIA), or "mini stroke," could lower your life expectancy, according to new research. Survival rates after TIA were 20 percent lower than expected nine years later, compared to the general population. The long-term effects of TIA were most serious for patients older than 65 and for patients with previous history of stroke and heart problems.

Scientists studying the effect of aging on smell, have found that those 60 and over have more difficulty distinguishing between odors, putting them at risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition.

People with Parkinson's disease may be more likely to have a movement disorder called leg motor restlessness, but not true restless legs syndrome as previous studies have suggested, according to a new study.

Patients with thickening and blockage of the internal carotid artery (supplies blood to the brain) and hemodynamic cerebral ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the brain, sub-type of stroke) who had a surgical procedure performed to improve blood flow in the artery did not have a reduced rate of stroke after two years compared to similar patients who received medical therapy alone, according to a new study.

A new national study shows that wealthier Americans and those with private health insurance fare better than others on one important measure of health – and this health gap only grows wider as they age. Researchers found that, when the study began, middle-aged and older Americans with more income and assets reported having less trouble with five activities of daily living: Walking across a room, bathing, eating, dressing and getting in and out of bed.

Health care costs for hepatitis C patients with end-stage liver disease are nearly 2.5 times higher than those in the early stages, according to a new study. Although infection with the hepatitis C virus increases health care costs overall, the specific impact of the disease's progressive severity on health care costs has previously not been well studied.

New demographic analysis reveals that the carbon dioxide emissions of the average American increase until around the age of 65, and then start to decrease. For the United States this means that, although the aging of the population will lead to a slight overall rise in CO₂ emissions over the next four decades, the long-term trends indicate that increasing life expectancy will result in a reduction in emissions.

In a new study, researchers found the majority of registered nurse respondents reported error disclosure and responding to be a difficult process in their workplaces. The study has implications to improve nursing education, policy, and patient safety culture in the nursing home setting.

A neuroscientist says a protein that regulates nerve cells and assists in overall brain function may be key to preventing the long-term damage of stroke and hopes her work leads to the development of an effective therapeutic intervention.

Regular physical activity is associated with a lower risk of suffering depression in old age. This is shown by one of the largest studies on elderly Europeans to have been carried out. Research also shows that self-determined motivation and perceived competence are important factors in persuading elderly people to exercise more.

How does the hospital environment affect our rehabilitation? New research from Sweden into how the space around us affects the brain reveals that well-planned architecture, design and sensory stimulation increase patients' ability to recover both physically and mentally. Digital textiles and multisensory spaces can make rehabilitation more effective and reduce the amount of time spent in care.

While obesity is a well-known cause of cardiovascular disease, research from Sweden has now revealed that one of the body's obesity-related hormones -- adiponectin -- is also linked to osteoporosis and an increased risk of fractures.

Age alone no longer should be considered a defining factor when determining whether an older patient with blood cancer is a candidate for stem cell transplantation. That's the conclusion of the first study summarizing long-term outcomes from a series of prospective clinical trials of patients age 60 and over who were treated with the mini-transplant, a "kinder, gentler" form of allogeneic (donor cell) stem cell transplantation.

Scientists have made a discovery that will change the direction of Alzheimer's research. They found that the protein tangles, which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's, involve three different proteins instead of one. The discovery of these additional proteins, called neurofilaments and vimentin, should help scientists better understand the biology and progression of Alzheimer's and provide additional drug discovery targets.