Relationships of Fall Risk With Frailty, Sarcopenia, and Balance Disturbances in Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease

Background@#and Purpose Cognitive impairment is one of the main risk factors for falls, and hence it commonly coexists with balance issues. Frailty and sarcopenia are intertwined and prevalent in dementia, and are closely related to falls. We aimed to determine the relationships of the fall risk with balance disturbances, sarcopenia, and frailty in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD). @*Methods@#The study enrolled 56 patients with probable AD. A comprehensive geriatric assessment was performed, and muscle strength and mass, performance status, gait, and balance were evaluated. All parameters were compared between fallers and nonfallers with AD. @*Results@#Fallers comprised 53.6% of the study population. The demographic features and AD stages did not differ between fallers and nonfallers. Fallers were more frail than nonfallers (p0.05). @*Conclusions@#We found that falls were not influenced by AD stage. Both physical and cumulative frailty were strongly associated with falls in patients with mild-to-moderate AD.

Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio may have a role in the differential diagnosis of ischemic stroke

@#There is increasing evidence that inflammation is involved in the mechanisms of acute ischemic stroke. The utility of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has recently been reported to help in the prognostication of stroke. The utility of NLR in the diagnosis of stroke remains uncertain. In this retrospective study, patients with acute ischemic stroke who presented within the first 24 hours of symptom onset to our clinic from September to December 2019 were studied, involving 93 patients with stroke and 60 control. The mean age in the stroke group was 71.7 ± 12.2 years whereas it was 72.6 ± 5.7 in the control group (p=0.405). The female/male ratio was 47/46 in the stroke group and it was 26/34 in the control group (p=0.411). The NLR level was higher in patients with ischemic stroke as compared to control (p=0.029) whereas hemoglobin levels were lower in the patient group (p= 0.025). The ROC curve analysis revealed that a NLR cutoff point of 2.34 had 61.3 % sensitivity and 60% specificity in detecting patients with ischemic stroke. The regression analyses also revealed that the NLR and hemoglobin levels were predictors for stroke. In conclusion, NLR and hemoglobin may potentially be paraclinical markers in differential diagnosis of stroke.