Articles: adult.
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BACKGROUND Delirium is characterized by acute cognitive impairment. We examined the association of delirium with long-term cognitive trajectories in older adults with Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS We evaluated prospectively collected data from a nested cohort of hospitalized patients with AD (n = 263) in the Massachusetts Alzheimer Disease Research Center patient registry between January 1, 1991, and June 30, 2006 (median follow-up duration, 3.2 years). ⋯ Sensitivity analyses that excluded rehospitalized patients and included matching on baseline cognitive function and baseline rate of cognitive deterioration produced essentially identical results. CONCLUSIONS Delirium is highly prevalent among persons with AD who are hospitalized and is associated with an increased rate of cognitive deterioration that is maintained for up to 5 years. Strategies to prevent delirium may represent a promising avenue to explore for ameliorating cognitive deterioration in AD.
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We wanted to assess the trends of CT examinations that were conducted in an adult emergency department (ED). ⋯ CT use in adult ED has increased at a rate that far exceeds the growth of ED patient volume, with facial bone CTs and cervical CTs having the largest increasing rate, followed by chest CTs, miscellaneous CTs, abdominal CTs and head CTs.