Nihon Ronen Igakkai zasshi. Japanese journal of geriatrics
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Nihon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi · Jan 2010
Case Reports[A case of limbic encephalitis with small cell lung carcinoma in which the cognitive function improved and redeteriorated during tumor therapy].
We report the findings regarding a 70-year-old man with paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis. He presented with a chief complaint of inability to recall any events. He had been well until one month before admission, and then he abruptly began to show progressive amnesia. ⋯ Interestingly, cognitive function also worsened again and the score of HDS-R declined to 15/30, 20 weeks after the start of chemotherapy. Limbic encephalitis can be associated with malignant tumors, such as small cell lung carcinoma, and some reported cases have shown a cognitive improvement after tumor therapy. In our case, we also observed a reworsening of the cognitive function in association with the acquired chemoresistence.
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Osteoporosis treatment aims to prevent fractures and maintain the QOL of the elderly. However, persons at high risk of future fracture cannot be effectively identified on the basis of bone density (BMD) alone, although BMD is used as an diagnostic criterion. ⋯ The WHO has just announced the development of a calculation tool (FRAX: WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool) in February this year. Fractures could be prevented more effectively if, based on each country's medical circumstances, an absolute risk value for fracture to determine when to start medical treatment is established and persons at high risk of fracture are identified and treated accordingly.
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Nihon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi · Mar 2008
Review Case Reports[Pure amnesia due to the right capsular genu infarction].
A 77-year-old right-handed woman was admitted to our hospital with memory disturbance. Neurological examination was normal except for amnesia. Neuropsychological tests showed severe impairments in verbal and visual memories. ⋯ Decreased perfusion in the right thalamus and frontal lobe on (99m)Tc-ECD SPECT was attributable to disconnection of the thalamo-cortical tract by infarction. We consider that the patient's amnesia in this case was induced by infarction of the capsular genu, which includes some fibers from the anterior and inferior thalamic peduncles. Our findings demonstrated that lacunar infarction in the genu of the right internal capsule caused severe and persistent amnesia.
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Nihon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi · Jul 2007
[Decision-making factors regarding resuscitate and hospitalize orders by families of elderly persons on admission to a Japanese long-term care hospital].
Because long-term care facilities are being asked to care for more and more residents who are dying, the facilities require that new residents and families make decisions regarding their end-of-life care at the time of the admission process. An advance directive including "do-not resuscitate directives (DNR)" or "do-not-hospitalize directives (DNH)" is a written document that afford individuals the opportunity to determine the type and extent of end-of-life care when they are incapable of participation in medical decision making. It is expected that Japanese elderly and families make individual decisions regarding end-of-life care by a Japanese-style decision-making model including advance directives. The purpose of this study was to explore families' decision-making factors regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitate (CPR) and hospitalize orders in a long-term care hospital. ⋯ Wide variation in the likelihood of having CPR and hospitalize orders among physicians who explain an advance directive suggests a need for standardized methods for eliciting the end-of-life preferences of residents and families on admission to long-term care hospitals.