Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients

Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients

Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...

Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Excretion

Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Excretion

In geriatric patients, renal physiology undergoes significant changes, including diminished renal blood flow and a lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR), leading to alterations in medication clearance. Drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, lithium, and digoxin, which rely on glomerular filtration for removal from the body, particularly impact pharmacokinetics. These drugs tend to have slower clearance rates in older adults, necessitating careful dosage considerations.Evaluation of renal...

Kaplan-Meier Approach

Kaplan-Meier Approach

The Kaplan-Meier estimator is a non-parametric method used to estimate the survival function from time-to-event data. In medical research, it is frequently employed to measure the proportion of patients surviving for a certain period after treatment. This estimator is fundamental in analyzing time-to-event data, making it indispensable in clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and reliability engineering. By estimating survival probabilities, researchers can evaluate treatment effectiveness,...

Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age

Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age

Age-related pharmacokinetic changes are extensively documented, but understanding age-related pharmacodynamic alterations is relatively limited. This knowledge gap can be partly attributed to the complexity of developing appropriate measures of drug responses compared to bioanalytical methods for determining drug concentrations.Most information regarding age-related differences in human pharmacodynamics originates from cross-sectional studies. However, these studies assume that observed mean...

Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution

Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution

Drug distribution in the human body is influenced by several factors, including plasma protein concentration, body composition, blood flow, tissue-protein concentration, and tissue fluid pH. Among these, changes in plasma protein concentration and body composition due to aging significantly affect how drugs are distributed within the body. Specifically, aging is associated with a decrease in albumin levels by about 10% and an increase in α1-acid glycoprotein levels. These alterations are not...

Assumptions of Survival Analysis

Assumptions of Survival Analysis

Survival models analyze the time until one or more events occur, such as death in biological organisms or failure in mechanical systems. These models are widely used across fields like medicine, biology, engineering, and public health to study time-to-event phenomena. To ensure accurate results, survival analysis relies on key assumptions and careful study design.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

The genetic secrets revealed from canine fetal fluids obtained in mid-pregnancy.

Scientific reports·2025

Same author

Analysis of biochemical parameters in canine fetal fluids during the second half of pregnancy.

Theriogenology·2022

Same author

Rapid recovery of taste and smell in a patient with SARS-CoV-2 following convalescent plasma therapy.

QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians·2021

Same author

Novel short peripheral catheter design for prevention of thrombophlebitis.

Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH·2018

Same author

Detection of tilapia lake virus (TiLV) infection by PCR in farmed and wild Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) from Lake Victoria.

Journal of fish diseases·2018

Same author

Severe hepatocytotoxicity linked to denosumab.

European review for medical and pharmacological sciences·2017

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Mortality predictors in hospitalized elderly patients.

S Tal¹, V Guller, Y Shavit

¹Geriatric Medicine Department, Kaplan Medical Center, P.O. Box 1, Rehovot 76100, Israel. mail@tal.org.il

QJM : Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians

|June 28, 2011

Summary

Elevated vitamin B12 levels, not the Charlson comorbidity index, better predict in-hospital mortality in elderly patients. Routine measurement of vitamin B12 and albumin can identify high-risk individuals.

Related Experiment Videos

Area of Science:

Geriatric Medicine
Clinical Biochemistry
Epidemiology

Background:

In-hospital mortality risk assessment in elderly patients is crucial.
Existing tools like the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) may not fully capture mortality risk in all elderly populations.
Novel biomarkers are needed for improved risk stratification.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the predictive accuracy of vitamin B12 levels and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) for in-hospital mortality in elderly patients.
To identify reliable and accessible predictors of mortality in critically ill geriatric patients.

Main Methods:

Retrospective analysis of electronic hospital records.
Inclusion of 1509 elderly patients (≥65 years).
Statistical association analysis between biomarkers (albumin, vitamin B12), CCI, and in-hospital mortality.

Main Results:

Elevated vitamin B12 levels, albumin, and age were significantly associated with increased in-hospital mortality.
The CCI was not significantly associated with death.
Vitamin B12 demonstrated approximately three times greater predictive capability for mortality compared to the CCI.

Conclusions:

Vitamin B12 levels, alongside albumin, serve as a practical and reliable tool for identifying high-risk elderly hospitalized patients.
Routine measurement of vitamin B12 and albumin is recommended in geriatric practice.
Combining simple, inexpensive tests may offer superior mortality prediction compared to complex indices like the CCI.