Comorbidities and COVID-19 status influence the survival rate of geriatric patients in intensive care units: a prospective cohort study from the Indonesian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy.

BACKGROUND: With the more advanced science in the field of medicine and disease management, the population of geriatric intensive care patients is increasing. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare management around the globe, especially on critically-ill elderly patients. We aim to analyse the relationship between underlying illnesses, including COVID-19, and the survival rate of elderly patients who are treated in the intensive care setting. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study at 14 teaching hospitals for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Education in Indonesia. We selected all subjects with 60 years of age or older in the period between February to May 2021. Variables recorded included subject characteristics, comorbidities, and COVID-19 status. Subjects were followed for 30-day mortality as an outcome. We analysed the data using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. RESULTS: We recruited 982 elderly patients, and 728 subjects were in the final analysis (60.7% male; 68.0 ± 6.6 years old). The 30-day mortality was 38.6%. The top five comorbidities are hypertension (21.1%), diabetes (16.2%), moderate or severe renal disease (10.6%), congestive heart failure (9.2%), and cerebrovascular disease (9.1%). Subjects with Charlson's Comorbidity Index Score > 5 experienced 66% death. Subjects with COVID-19 who died were 57.4%. Subjects with comorbidities and COVID-19 had lower survival time than subjects without those conditions (p < 0.005). Based on linear correlation analysis, the more comorbidities the geriatric patients in the ICU had, the higher chance of mortality in 30 days (p < 0.005, R coefficient 0.22). CONCLUSION: Approximately one in four elderly intensive care patients die, and the number is increasing with comorbidities and COVID-19 status.

Perioperative Factors Impact on Mortality and Survival Rate of Geriatric Patients Undergoing Surgery in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Cohort Study in Indonesia.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on geriatric patients worldwide since geriatrics itself is an age group with a high risk due to declined physiological function and many comorbidities, especially for those who undergo surgery. In this study, we determine the association between perioperative factors with 30-day mortality and a survival rate of geriatric patients undergoing surgery during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at 14 central hospitals in Indonesia. The recorded variables were perioperative factors, 30-day mortality, and survival rate. Analyses of associations between variables and 30-day mortality were performed using univariate/multivariable logistic regression, and survival rates were determined with Kaplan−Meier survival analysis. Results: We analyzed 1621 elderly patients. The total number of patients who survived within 30 days of observation was 4.3%. Several perioperative factors were associated with 30-day mortality (p < 0.05) is COVID-19 (OR, 4.34; 95% CI, 1.04−18.07; p = 0.04), CCI > 3 ( odds ratio [OR], 2.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03−5.26; p = 0.04), emergency surgery (OR, 3.70; 95% CI, 1.96−7.00; p ≤ 0.01), postoperative ICU care (OR, 2.70; 95% CI, 1.32−5.53; p = 0.01), and adverse events (AEs) in the ICU (OR, 3.43; 95% CI, 1.32−8.96; p = 0.01). Aligned with these findings, COVID-19, CCI > 3, and comorbidities have a log-rank p < 0.05. The six comorbidities that have log-rank p < 0.05 are moderate-to-severe renal disease (log-rank p ≤ 0.01), cerebrovascular disease (log-rank p ≤ 0.01), diabetes with chronic complications (log-rank p = 0.03), metastatic solid tumor (log-rank p = 0.02), dementia (log-rank p ≤ 0.01), and rheumatology disease (log-rank p = 0.03). Conclusions: Having at least one of these conditions, such as COVID-19, comorbidities, emergency surgery, postoperative ICU care, or an AE in the ICU were associated with increased mortality in geriatric patients undergoing surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stop and Go - Waves of Tarsier Dispersal Mirror the Genesis of Sulawesi Island.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi harbors a highly endemic and diverse fauna sparking fascination since long before Wallace's contemplation of biogeographical patterns in the region. Allopatric diversification driven by geological or climatic processes has been identified as the main mechanism shaping present faunal distribution on the island. There is both consensus and conflict among range patterns of terrestrial species pointing to the different effects of vicariant events on once co-distributed taxa. Tarsiers, small nocturnal primates with possible evidence of an Eocene fossil record on the Asian mainland, are at present exclusively found in insular Southeast Asia. Sulawesi is hotspot of tarsier diversity, whereby island colonization and subsequent radiation of this old endemic primate lineage remained largely enigmatic. To resolve the phylogeographic history of Sulawesi tarsiers we analyzed an island-wide sample for a set of five approved autosomal phylogenetic markers (ABCA1, ADORA3, AXIN1, RAG1, and TTR) and the paternally inherited SRY gene. We constructed ML and Bayesian phylogenetic trees and estimated divergence times between tarsier populations. We found that their arrival at the Proto-Sulawesi archipelago coincided with initial Miocene tectonic uplift and hypothesize that tarsiers dispersed over the region in distinct waves. Intra-island diversification was spurred by land emergence and a rapid succession of glacial cycles during the Plio-Pleistocene. Some tarsier range boundaries concur with spatial limits in other taxa backing the notion of centers of faunal endemism on Sulawesi. This congruence, however, has partially been superimposed by taxon-specific dispersal patterns.