Le repérage et le diagnostic de l'état confusionnel aigu chez les personnes âgées : quels outils rapides ?

Résumé L'état confusionnel aigu (ECA) est fréquent chez les patients âgés hospitalisés induisant de graves conséquences cliniques. Malgré sa prévalence élevée, l'ECA est souvent sous-diagnostiqué. Un repérage précoce de l'ECA permettrait une prise en charge optimisée, et une diminution de l'incidence des complications. Pour cela, la validation d'outils formalisés et simples d'utilisation est nécessaire.L'objectif de cette revue narrative était de décrire les performances et l'intérêt des outils de repérage de l'ECA les plus fréquemment utilisés en pratique clinique et en recherche, dont ceux ayant une durée de passation rapide (durée inférieure à 3 minutes).Cette revue a permis d'identifier quatre outils, fréquemment utilisés, et validés sur le plan international (CAM, DRS-R-98, DOSS, MDAS), dont trois disposent d'une version française. Les temps de passation de ces outils varient entre 5 et 30 minutes. Bien qu'ils aient un niveau de preuve plus limité, d'autres outils ayant une durée de passation plus rapide, comme la 4AT, la 3D-CAM et l'UB-CAM, semblent prometteurs, notamment en raison d'excellentes performances diagnostiques. De prochaines études devront être menées afin de valider ces outils en langue française, et de mieux préciser leur utilisation et leur impact en pratique clinique. Abstract Delirium is very common in hospitalized older patients and associated with serious clinical outcomes, notably increased risk of functional decline and death. Despite its high prevalence in the hospital setting, delirium is still underdiagnosed. A better identification would allow an early management and a reduction of its complications. To achieve this, the validation of formalized, easy-to-use and quick tools for the identification of delirium and their implementation in our clinical practice are necessary.The objective of this narrative review is to describe the available tools for delirium identification most commonly used in clinical practice and in research, followed by those that are quick to very quick to complete (i.e., less than 3 minutes).This review identified 4 tools frequently used internationally (CAM, DRS-R-98, DOSS, MDAS). Their completion time varies from 5 to 30 minutes. Rapid or very rapid tools exist, with very good diagnostic performance. Among them, the 4AT, the 3D-CAM and the UB-CAM seem particularly promising. These last tools seem interesting for a large-scale implementation at the national level, but a validation in French remains to be done.

Humoral immune response after COVID-19 infection or BNT162b2 vaccine among older adults: evolution over time and protective thresholds.

The objectives of this study were to assess the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 anti-RBD-IgG response over time among older people after COVID-19 infection or vaccination and its comparison with indicative levels of protection. Geriatric patients with SARS-CoV-2 serological test results were included and divided into three groups. A vaccine group (n = 34), a group of natural COVID-19 infection (n = 32), and a group who contracted COVID-19 less than 15 days after the first injection (n = 17). Eighty-three patients were included; the median age with IQR was 87 (81-91) years. In the vaccine group at 1 month since the first vaccination, the median titer of anti-RBD-IgG was 620 (217-1874) BAU/ml with 87% of patients above the theoretical protective threshold of 141 BAU/ml according to Dimeglio et al. (J Infec. 84(2):248-88, [7]). Seven months after the first vaccination, this titer decreased to 30 (19-58) BAU/ml with 9.5% of patients > 141 BAU/ml. In the natural COVID-19 infection group, at 1 month since the date of first symptom onset, the median titer was 798 (325-1320) BAU/ml with 86.7% of patients > 141 BAU/ml and fell to 88 (37-385) with 42.9% of patients > 141 BAU/ml at 2 months. The natural infection group was vaccinated 3 months after the infection. Five months after the vaccination cycle, the median titer was 2048 (471-4386) BAU/ml with 83.3% of patients > 141 BAU/ml. This supports the clinical results describing the decrease in vaccine protection over time and suggests that vaccination after infection can maintain significantly higher antibody titer levels for a prolonged period of time.

Therapeutic prevention of COVID-19 in elderly: a case-control study.

COVID-19 is a particularly aggressive disease for the elderly as 86% of deaths related to COVID-19 occur in people over 65 years of age. Despite the urgent need for a preventive treatment, there are currently no serious leads, other than the vaccination. The aim of this retrospective case-control study is to find a pharmacological preventive treatment of COVID-19 in elderly patients. One-hundred-seventy-nine patients had been in contact with other COVID-19 patients at home or in hospital, of whom 89 had tested RT-PCR-positive (COVID-pos) for the virus and 90 had tested RT-PCR-negative (COVID-neg). Treatments within 15 days prior to RT-PCR (including antihypertensive drugs, antipsychotics, antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), oral antidiabetics (OADs), corticosteroids, immunosuppressants), comorbidities, symptoms, laboratory values, and clinical outcome were all collected. COVID-pos patients more frequently had a history of diabetes (P = .016) and alcoholism (P = .023), a lower leukocyte count (P = .014) and a higher mortality rate - 29.2% versus 14.4% - (P = .014) when compared to COVID-neg patients. Patients on PPIs were 2.3 times less likely (odds ratio [OR] = 0.4381, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.2331, 0.8175], P = .0053) to develop COVID-19 infection, compared to those not on PPIs. No other treatment decreased or increased this risk. COVID-pos patients on antipsychotics (P = .0013) and OADs (P = .0153), particularly metformin (P = .0237), were less likely to die. Thus, patients on treatment with PPI were less likely to develop COVID-19 infection, and those on antipsychotics or metformin had a lower risk of mortality. However, prospective studies, including clinical trials, are needed to confirm or not these findings.

Clinical and paraclinical patterns of presentation, and sensitivity of diagnostic scores for pulmonary embolism at the emergencies: retrospective study on the impact of age at the University hospitals of Strasbourg (France).

The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism remains difficult. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of age on the clinical presentation mode and the sensitivity of the diagnostic scores. METHODS: In retrospect, all patients discharged with a documented diagnosis of pulmonary embolism from the adult emergency service of the Regional university hospital of Strasbourg (France) over a year were considered. According to 4 age categories (<70, 70-74, 75-80 and >80 years) the data from the medical records were analyzed and compared. Diagnostic scores of Wells and modified Geneva were calculated. RESULTS: 117 patients met the inclusion criteria (mean age 71.8±13.8 years, women 54%). Chest pain was less common after 80 years; no difference was observed for syncope or dyspnea although the oxygen saturation is lower in old age. For diagnosis, 25% of patients had a lung scintigraphy with an increased recourse with age (<70 years: 10%, >80 years: 41%). Thoracic computed tomography angiography concerned 79% of patients with a significant decrease of his use in older. The sensitivity of the diagnostic scores was low but increased with age when the strong and intermediate probabilities of pulmonary embolism were combined. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the low specificity of the clinical signs of pulmonary embolism, whatever the age. It also shows the low sensitivity of the diagnostic scores in the 70 years or older.