Annals of Long Term Care

Postprandial hypotension (PPH) is defined as a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 20 mm Hg or more within 2 hours of the start of a meal. Symptoms may include dizziness, lightheadedness, weakness, falls, or syncope.¹ Reduction of blood pressure after meals was first described in 1929.² PPH was documented in a patient with hypertension in 1935, and it was recognized as a clinical problem in a patient with Parkinson’s disease in 1977.³ Over the past two decades, PPH has received special attention by researchers in geriatrics for several reasons.

Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia (“Watermelon Stomach”) as a Cause of Chronic Gastrointestinal Bleeding in an Elderly Bedridden Patient

Introduction

Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), or “watermelon stomach,” is a relatively uncommon cause of gastrointestinal (GI) blood loss. The entity is well described in the gastroenterological and endoscopic literature, but it is not as familiar to most readers of geriatric journals. The mean age of affected individuals is around 70 years, with female preponderance. It is widely believed that GAVE is underrecognized and th

Schizophrenia is a disease marked by delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking. Currently, the overall worldwide prevalence of schizophrenia is 1%, with two-thirds of cases becoming chronic. As more people survive into their later years, the number of people over age 65 years with schizophrenia is likely to increase.

Below we describe a case of an elderly single female, living in a supportive residence, with a history of many hospitalizations from chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Her case illustrates the factors influencing the prognosis of aging persons with schizophrenia, includi

Author Affiliations:

Dr. Huh is Associate Director of Education and Evaluation at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center; Dr. Areán is Associate Professor, Dr. Bornfeld is Staff Psychologist, and Dr. Elite-Marcandonatou is Staff Therapist at the Department of Psychiatry, University
of California, San Francisco.

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In a Patient with Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Introduction and Background

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is considered the second most prevalent dementia after Alzheime

Introduction

Hypothermia is defined as a core temperature below 35 degrees C (95 degrees F), and can be further classified by severity1 (Table I). Fever is the most commonly encountered disorder of thermoregulation; however, hypothermia was the reported cause of death of 16,655 persons in the United States between 1979 and 2002 (average, 689 persons/yr). Nearly one-half of these deaths involved patients older than age 65 years, with an overall male-to-female ratio of 2.5:1.2,3 In addition, researchers have speculated that hypothermia could explain some of the unexpected sudden deaths