Publications

OBJECTIVES

To describe an innovative model of care, the Surgery Wellness Program (SWP), that uses a multidisciplinary team to develop and implement preoperative care plans for older adults, and its effect on engagement in advance care planning (ACP).

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of clinical demonstration project.

SETTING

Preoperative optimization program for older adults undergoing surgery at a 796-bed academic tertiary hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

Older adults (N=131) who participated in the SWP from February 2015 to August 2017.

INTERVENTION

All SWP participants met with a geriatrician who engaged them in a semistructured ACP discussion. Trained medical and nurse practitioner students were used as health coaches who contacted participants regularly to address and document ACP.

MEASUREMENTS

Self-report of ACP engagement before and after participation in the SWP was determined using SWP geriatrician and health coach progress notes. Medical records were examined for scanned documentation. Feasibility data on number of health coach calls were collected.

RESULTS

After completion of the program, the proportion of participants with a designated surrogate increased from 67% to 78% (p<.001), completed advance directive (AD) from 51% to 72% (p<.001), and an AD scanned into the medical record from 14% to 60% (p<.001). Participants who underwent surgery received a median of 4 health coaching calls over a median of 27 days between their clinic visit and surgery. Case examples are presented to highlight how the SWP attends to the many components of the ACP process.

CONCLUSION

Preoperative optimization programs provide a unique opportunity to engage older adults in ACP.

An efficient synthetic method for preparing bifurcated amphiphiles has been developed such that the functionality for attachment is located at the interface between the lipophilic and hydrophilic side chains. Attachment of the amphiphile to the repeat units of polymeric substrates enables the rapid preparation of amphiphilic homopolymers.

We present 10 of the most effective articles from 2016 in geriatric medicine. They address wide-ranging topics including the use of antipsychotics for delirium in palliative care, fall prevention and mobility interventions, efficacy and potential risks of testosterone, cranberry capsules and their effect on bacteriuria and pyuria, beta-blockers after acute myocardial infarction in a nursing home population, the effect of a healthy lifestyle on disability, a goals-of-care intervention in individuals with advanced dementia, the benefits of regional anesthesia in hip repair, and mindfulness in chronic pain management.

RATIONALE

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating lung disease of unknown etiology. The genes TOLLIP and MUC5B play important roles in lung host defense, which is an immune process influenced by oxidative signaling. Whether polymorphisms in TOLLIP and MUC5B modify the effect of immunosuppressive and antioxidant therapy in individuals with IPF is unknown.

OBJECTIVES

To determine whether single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within TOLLIP and MUC5B modify the effect of interventions in subjects participating in the Evaluating the Effectiveness of Prednisone, Azathioprine, and N-Acetylcysteine in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (PANTHER-IPF) clinical trial.

METHODS

SNPs within TOLLIP (rs5743890/rs5743894/rs5743854/rs3750920) and MUC5B (rs35705950) were genotyped. Interaction modeling was conducted with multivariable Cox regression followed by genotype-stratified survival analysis using a composite endpoint of death, transplantation, hospitalization, or a decline of ≥ 10% in FVC.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Significant interaction was observed between N-acetylcysteine (NAC) therapy and rs3750920 within TOLLIP (P interaction = 0.001). After stratifying by rs3750920 genotype, NAC therapy was associated with a significant reduction in composite endpoint risk (hazard ratio, 0.14; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.83; P = 0.03) in those with a TT genotype, but a nonsignificant increase in composite endpoint risk (hazard ratio, 3.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.79-13.16; P = 0.10) was seen in those with a CC genotype. These findings were then replicated in an independent IPF cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

NAC may be an efficacious therapy for individuals with IPF with an rs3750920 (TOLLIP) TT genotype, but it was associated with a trend toward harm in those with a CC genotype. A genotype-stratified prospective clinical trial should be conducted before any recommendation regarding the use of off-label NAC to treat IPF.

We evaluated the safety and effectiveness of adjunctive tacrolimus therapy with conventional immunosuppression in patients with severe connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD). We included patients from our interstitial lung disease (ILD) registry with CTD-ILD, in whom tacrolimus was added to corticosteroids and an additional immunosuppressive agent. Demographic data, clinical features, lung function, radiographic images, and pathologic findings were reviewed. Effectiveness was assessed by comparing pulmonary function tests (PFTs) closest to tacrolimus initiation to PFTs approximately 6-12 months later. Corticosteroid dose at these time points was also evaluated. We report adverse events attributed to tacrolimus. Seventeen patients with CTD-ILD were included in adverse event analysis; twelve were included in efficacy analysis. Length of tacrolimus therapy ranged from 6 to 110 months (mean 38.8 months ± 31.4). The mean improvement in percent predicted total lung capacity was 7.5% ± 11.7 (p = 0.02). Forced vital capacity mean improvement was 7.4% ± 12.5 (p = 0.06). The average decrease in corticosteroid dose at follow-up was 20.3 mg ± 25.2 (p = 0.02) with complete discontinuation in six patients. No patients experienced a life-threatening adverse event attributed to tacrolimus. Tacrolimus can be effective and is well tolerated as an adjunctive therapy and allows tapering of corticosteroids.