Factors Associated with Malnutrition Risk in Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities in Mexico.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate factors associated with the nutritional status in institutionalized Mexican older adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study of residents in three long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in Monterrey, Mexico, a medical history, Mini-Mental State Examination, Barthel index, and geriatric depression scale, and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) were performed. Risk of malnutrition and malnutrition status were defined as MNA 17-23.5 and <17, respectively. RESULTS: Residents (n = 280) had a median age of 85 years and 72.1% were female. A total of 116 (41.4%) were at risk of malnutrition and 35 (12.5%) were malnourished. Having malnutrition or being at risk of malnutrition was associated with age (OR = 1.048), functional dependence (OR = 8.376), body mass index (BMI) <22 (OR = 7.518), cognitive impairment (OR = 2.210), urinary incontinence (OR = 2.397), previous stroke (OR = 2.870), Parkinson's disease (OR = 5.193), use of calcium channel blockers (OR = 3.706), and use of atypical antipsychotics (OR = 2.277). Having benign prostatic hyperplasia (OR = 0.067) or the use of angiotensin II receptor blockers (OR = 0.038) were related to being well-nourished. CONCLUSIONS: In a population of residents of three LTCFs in Mexico, we found a high prevalence of malnutrition or being at risk of malnutrition. This underscores the need to implement guidelines for the prompt identification of this condition and further explanation of the factors identified as possibly related to malnutrition.

Applications of Infrared Thermography in Ophthalmology.

Body temperature is one of the key vital signs for determining a disease's severity, as it reflects the thermal energy generated by an individual's metabolism. Since the first study on the relationship between body temperature and diseases by Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich at the end of the 19th century, various forms of thermometers have been developed to measure body temperature. Traditionally, methods for measuring temperature can be invasive, semi-invasive, and non-invasive. In recent years, great technological advances have reduced the cost of thermographic cameras, which allowed extending their use. Thermal cameras capture the infrared radiation of the electromagnetic spectrum and process the images to represent the temperature of the object under study through a range of colors, where each color and its hue indicate a previously established temperature. Currently, cameras have a sensitivity that allows them to detect changes in temperature as small as 0.01 °C. Along with its use in other areas of medicine, thermography has been used at the ocular level for more than 50 years. In healthy subjects, the literature reports that the average corneal temperature ranges from 32.9 to 36 °C. One of the possible sources of variability in normal values is age, and other possible sources of variation are gender and external temperature. In addition to the evaluation of healthy subjects, thermography has been used to evaluate its usefulness in various eye diseases, such as Graves' orbitopathy, and tear duct obstruction for orbital diseases. The ocular surface is the most studied area. Ocular surface temperature is influenced by multiple conditions, one of the most studied being dry eye; other diseases studied include allergic conjunctivitis and pterygium as well as systemic diseases such as carotid artery stenosis. Among the corneal diseases studied are keratoconus, infectious keratitis, corneal graft rejection, the use of scleral or soft contact lenses, and the response to refractive or cataract surgery. Other diseases where thermographic features have been reported are glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, retinal vascular occlusions, intraocular tumors as well as scleritis, and other inflammatory eye diseases.