Age and ageing
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The cardiac output has been measured in 40 elderly patients by impedance cardiography and an isotopic indicator-dilution method. There was no significant systemic difference between the results obtained by the two methods. The mean difference between paired values was 0.76 1/min (approximately 16%). The value and limitations of impedance cardiography in the study of the circulation in the elderly are discussed.
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Psychiatric day hospitals for the elderly have been regarded either as an alternative to in-patient care or as a long-term supportive facility for patients with chronic psychiatric disabilities. In a five-year review of such a unit it was found that the unit's main function had become that of providing an immediate short-term supportive facility to demented patients, mainly in the 75-years-and-over age group, and to their relatives, until such time as beds in the long-stay psychogeriatric wards of the hospital became available. The implications of this change in role of day hospitals are discussed in the light of present facilities and the predicted increase in the size of this section of the population.
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Twenty-two patients with chlorpropamide-induced hypoglycaemic coma were seen at a medical centre serving a region with a large geriatric population. The median age of the patients was 72; seven were over 80 and only one was under 60. ⋯ Generally accepted contra-indications to the use of chlorpropamide were present in five of the eight patients under 70 and in four of the 14 patients over 70. If full precautions had been taken in presecribing chlorpropamide and if old age had been regarded as a contra-indication, the hypoglycaemia might have been prevented in 19 out of the 22 patients.