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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Acute respiratory failure in the elderly
— diagnosis and prognosis | | Author(s) | Samuel Delerme, Patrick Ray |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 37, no 3, May 2008 |
| Pages | pp 251-257 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Respiratory tract diseases ; Diagnosis ; Accident & emergency depts ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Acute respiratory failure (ARF) in patients aged 65+ is common in emergency departments (EDs) and is one of the key symptoms of congestive heart failure (CHD) and respiratory disorders. Searches were conducted of MEDLINE for published studies in the English language between January 1980 and August 2007, using "acute dyspnoea", "acute respiratory failure", "heart failure", "pneumonia" or "pulmonary embolism" keywords and selecting articles concerning patients aged 65 or over. The age-related structural changes of the respiratory system, their consequences in clinical assessment and the pathophysiology of ARF are reviewed. CHF is a common cause of ARF in older people. Inappropriate diagnosis that is frequent and inappropriate treatment in ED are associated with adverse outcomes. B type natriuretic peptides (BNPs) help to determine an accurate diagnosis of CHD. Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) should be considered for older patients admitted to hospital with CHF or acidotic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who do not improve with medical treatment. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080618208 A |
| Classmark | CN: LK7: LD6: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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