Older adults, especially men and/or those with diabetes, hypertension, and/or obesity, are prone to severe COVID-19. In some countries, older adults, particularly those residing in nursing homes, have been prioritized to receive COVID-19 vaccines due to high risk of death. In very rare instances, the COVID-19 vaccines can induce anaphylaxis, and the management of anaphylaxis in older people should be considered carefully. An ARIA-EAACI-EuGMS (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma, European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and European Geriatric Medicine Society) Working Group has proposed some recommendations for older adults receiving the COVID-19 vaccines. Anaphylaxis to COVID-19 vaccines is extremely rare (from 1 per 100,000 to 5 per million injections). Symptoms are similar in younger and older adults but they tend to be more severe in the older patients. Adrenaline is the mainstay treatment and should be readily available. A flowchart is proposed to manage anaphylaxis in the older patients.

ABSTRACT Background: Renal resistive index (RRI) has been used to evaluate renal blood flow. Our aim was to investigate the relation between RRI and global tissue hypoperfusion indices and their association with clinical outcome, in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Methods: RRI was measured within 24 h of ICU admission. Gas exchange and routine hemodynamic variables at the time of RRI assessment were recorded. An elevated RRI was defined as >0.7. The ratio of central venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure difference by arterial-to-central venous oxygen content difference (P(cv-a)CO2/C(a-cv)O2) and lactate were used as global tissue hypoperfusion indices. Results: A total of 126 patients were included [median age 61 (IQR 28) years, 74% males]. P(cv-a)CO2/C(a-cv)O2 ratio and arterial lactate were significantly higher in patients with RRI >0.7 compared with those with RRI ≤0.7 [2.88 (3.39) vs. 0.62 (0.57) mmol/L and 2.4 (2.2) vs. 1.2 (0.6)] respectively, both P < 0.001)]. RRI was significantly correlated with P(cv-a)CO2/C(a-cv)O2 ratio and arterial lactate for the whole patient population (rho = 0.64, both P < 0.0001) and for the subset of patients with shock (rho = 0.47, P = 0.001; and r = 0.64, P < 0.0001 respectively). Logistic regression models showed a significant association between RRI and P(cv-a)CO2/C(a-cv)O2 ratio with clinical outcome. The combination of RRI with P(cv-a)CO2)/(C(a-cv)O2 ratio and lactate better predicted mortality than RRI alone [AUC 84.8% (95% CI 5.1% –94.4%)] vs. [AUC 74.9% (95% CI 61%–88.8%)] respectively, P < 0.001. Conclusions: Renal blood flow assessed by RRI, on ICU admission, correlates with global tissue hypoperfusion indices. In addition, RRI in combination with tissue perfusion estimation better predicts clinical outcome than RRI alone.

The guidelines on hypertension recently published by the European Societies of Hypertension and Cardiology, have acknowledged cognitive function (and its decline) as a hypertension-mediated organ damage. In fact, brain damage can be the only hypertension-mediated organ damage in more than 30% of hypertensive patients, evolving undetected for several years if not appropriately screened; as long as undetected it cannot provide either corrective measures, nor adequate risk stratification of the hypertensive patient. The medical community dealing with older hypertensive patients should have a simple and pragmatic approach to early identify and precisely treat these patients. Both hypertension and cognitive decline are undeniably growing pandemics in developed or epidemiologically transitioning societies. Furthermore, there is a clear-cut connection between exposure to the increased blood pressure and development of cognitive decline. Therefore, a group of experts in the field from the European Society of Hypertension and from the European Geriatric Medicine Society gathered together to answer practical clinical questions that often face the physician when dealing with their hypertensive patients in a routine clinical practice. They elaborated a decision-making approach to help standardize such clinical evaluation.

Use of local arterial distensibility measurements by change in carotid artery diameter divided by pulse pressure has limitations because blood pressure is often taken in a vessel distant or at a time different from where and when change in diameter is taken. In 92 subjects (23 to 91 years of age), carotid artery diameter was continuously measured ecographically, whereas blood pressure was continuously measured simultaneously tonometrically on the contralateral artery, the 2 signals being synchronized via 2 EKGs. Within each cardiac cycle, there was a linear relationship between the changes in vessel diameter and the changes in blood pressure during either the protomesosystole or the diastole after the dicrotic notch. The diastolic slope was displaced upward and steeper than the systolic slope, the pressure-diameter loop showing a hysteresis. Both slopes showed a high reproducibility when data were averaged over a several-second period. There were small differences between consecutive cardiac cycles, suggesting that modulation of arterial mechanical response to continuous changes in intravascular pressure may undergo physiological variations. In the 92 subjects, systolic and diastolic slopes correlated significantly with distensibility values obtained by Reneman formula and exhibited a close inverse relationship with each subject's age and systolic blood pressure, thereby showing the ability to reflect age- and pressure-dependent large artery stiffening. This method may allow precise assessment of man's arterial mechanical properties within each cardiac cycle. This highly dynamic assessment may help to collect information on properties of normal and altered large elastic arteries and the mechanisms involved in disease.