BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Malnutrition in the elderly is a serious problem, prevalent in both hospitals and care homes. Due to the absence of a gold standard for malnutrition, herein we evaluate the efficacy of five nutritional screening tools developed or used for the elderly. SUBJECTS/METHODS Elected medical records of 141 elderly patients (86 men and 55 women, aged 73.5 ± 5.2 years) hospitaliz...

Protease La is an ATP-dependent protease that catalyzes the rapid degradation of abnormal proteins and certain normal polypeptides in Escherichia coli. In order to learn more about its specificity and the role of ATP, we tested whether small fluorogenic peptides might serve as substrates. In the presence of ATP and Mg2+, protease La hydrolyzes two oligopeptides that are also substrates for chym...

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of elderly living in nursing homes in the city of Salvador, Brazil and associated factors. Methods: Cross-sectional study performed with 359 individuals of both sexes, ages equal or over 60 years old, located in Nursing Homes in the urban area of the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Results: Regarding nutritional status according to Mini Nutritional A...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate sexand age-related variations of the nutritional status in the aged population of central Sardinia, a geographical area with a high frequency of long-lived people, particularly men. Design: The sample consisted of 200 subjects over 70 years of age (men: N= 100, age= 81.0±7.0 years; women: N= 100, age= 81.5±7.3 years). Setting: Orroli (central Sa...

Introduction: The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a scale developed to evaluate the risk of malnutrition in senior citizens and to identify those who might benefit from early intervention. The objective of this study was to verify the nutritional profile of elderly individuals through the application of the MNA in three different locations: at the Geriatric outpatient clinic and two long-t...

BACKGROUND Malnutrition is common and affects negatively the health of the older adult. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), a nutritional assessment tool allows to identify elders malnourished and at risk of malnutrition. The aim of this study is to validate the Portuguese version of the MNA. METHODS Cross-sectional study with 344 Brazilian elderly. The full version of the MNA was performe...

Aim: To investigate factors associated with poor nutritional status in older people living in residential care facilities. Methods: 188 residents (136 women, 52 men) with physical and cognitive impairments participated. Mean age was 84.7 y (range 65−100). The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Barthel ADL Index, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Geriatric Depression Scale were used to e...

IMPORTANCE Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis (CNPAS) is a rare cause of nasal airway obstruction in newborns. The decision to operate is made clinically. Although pyriform aperture width is used for diagnosing CNPAS, it does not fully characterize stenosis of the nasal cavity. OBJECTIVE To determine the utility of additional metrics for evaluating CNPAS. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTI...

NO is known to be involved in the peripheral and central regulation of the cardiovascular function. It plays a neuromodulatory role via a direct action on presynaptic nerve terminals, stimulating the release of gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, and norepinephrine. Our aim was to study the possible role of NO in the cardiovascular effects of the central antihypertensive drugs clonidine, rilmen...

BACKGROUND Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for vascular diseases. This study aimed to investigate the serum total homocysteine (tHcy) level and nutritional status in elderly inpatients and determine the relationship between tHcy level and nutritional status. METHODS This cross sectional study was carried out in the Tongji hospital, and 142 subjects were consecutively recruited. Fasting ...