门诊痴呆患者诊断率低的原因分析

目的 了解我院神经内科门诊痴呆患者就诊情况,分析影响痴呆患者就诊的因素.方法 对2009年9月15日至2009年12月25日在西安交通大学医学院第一附属医院神经内科门诊就诊的患者中符合入选标准者,采用“三步法”筛查痴呆,并根据美国精神疾病诊断和统计手册第4版(修订版)(DSM-Ⅳ-TR)的标准诊断痴呆及其亚型、美国国立神经疾病研究院语言交流障碍-脑卒中-老年性痴呆及相关疾病协会(NINCDS-ADRDA)标准诊断阿尔茨海默病,美国国立神经疾病和脑卒中研究所和瑞士国际神经科学研究协会(NINDS-AIREN)标准诊断血管性痴呆.对临床确诊的痴呆患者的照料者进行面对面问卷调查,了解痴呆患者就诊情况.结果 调查期间共有门诊患者8042例次,完成IQCODE检查1716例,MMSE检查317例,成套神经心理测查72例,诊断痴呆41例,55岁以上门诊患者痴呆患病率1.8％.其中阿尔茨海默病23例(56.1％),血管性痴呆12例(29.3％),混合性痴呆2例(4.9％),其他原因痴呆4例(9.7％,分别为路易小体痴呆、乙型脑炎后痴呆、癫痫后痴呆和不明原因痴呆各1例);轻度痴呆18例(43.9％),中度痴呆19例(46.3％),重度痴呆4例(9.8％);既往确诊痴呆4例(9.8％),门诊医生诊断痴呆15例(36.5％),门诊医生未诊断痴呆而调查时发现痴呆22例(53.7％).完成照料者问卷35份,其中照料者对痴呆完全不了解10例(28.6％),稍有了解22例(62.8％),了解较多3例(8.6％).本次因记忆减退等认知功能障碍症状来就诊19例(46.3％),而以其他非认知功能障碍症状来就诊22例(53.7％),包括性格改变、精神症状、脑梗死、疲乏、睡眠紊乱、震颤及其他症状等.痴呆患者未及时就诊的原因包括:照料者认为老年人的认知功能障碍症状是自然衰老19例(54.3％),患者本人不愿就诊5例(14.3％),认为痴呆无法治疗2例(5.7％),经济困难1例(2.9％),就诊不便3例(8.5％),其他原因5例(14.3％).结论 我国痴呆患者就诊率低,其主要原因是照料者对痴呆认识不足,也与门诊医生仅关注患者的躯体症状,而忽略认知功能症状有关.     

Screening for diabetes in an outpatient clinic population

BACKGROUND: Opportunistic disease screening is the routine, asymptomatic disease screening of patients at the time of a physician encounter for other reasons. While the prevalence of unrecognized diabetes in community populations is well known, the prevalence in clinical populations is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence, predictors, and clinical severity of unrecognized diabetes among outpatients at a major medical center. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional observational study at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. SUBJECTS: Outpatients without recognized diabetes (N=1,253). METHODS: We screened patients for diabetes by using an initial random Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurement, and then obtaining follow-up fasting plasma glucose (FPG) for all subjects with HbA1c > or =6.0%. A case of unrecognized diabetes was defined as either HbA1c > or =7.0% or FPG > or =7 mmol/L (126 mg/dL). Height and weight were obtained for all subjects. We also obtained resting blood pressure, fasting lipids, and urine protein in subjects with HbA1c > or =6.0%. RESULTS: The prevalence of unrecognized diabetes was 4.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4 to 5.7). Factors associated with unrecognized diabetes were the diagnosis of hypertension (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.5; P=.004), weight >120% of ideal (adjusted OR, 2.2; P=.02), and history of a parent or sibling with diabetes (adjusted OR, 1.7; P=.06). Having a primary care provider did not raise or lower the risk for unrecognized diabetes (P=.73). Based on the new diagnosis, most patients (61%) found to have diabetes required a change in treatment either of their blood sugar or comorbid hypertension or hyperlipidemia in order to achieve targets recommended in published treatment guidelines. Patients reporting a primary care provider were no less likely to require a change in treatment (P=.20). CONCLUSIONS: If diabetes screening is an effective intervention, opportunistic screening for diabetes may be the preferred method for screening, because there is substantial potential for case-finding in a medical center outpatient setting. A majority of patients with diabetes diagnosed at opportunistic screening will require a change in treatment of blood sugar, blood pressure, or lipids to receive optimal care.     

Communication breakdown in the outpatient referral process

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate primary care and specialist physicians' satisfaction with interphysician communication and to identify the major problems in the current referral process. DESIGN: Surveys were mailed to providers to determine satisfaction with the referral process; then patient-specific surveys were e-mailed to this group to obtain real-time referral information. SETTING: Academic tertiary care medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Attending-level primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The response rate for mail surveys for PCPs was 57% and for specialists was 51%. In the mail survey, 63% of PCPs and 35% of specialists were dissatisfied with the current referral process. Respondents felt that major problems with the current referral system were lack of timeliness of information and inadequate referral letter content. Information considered important by recipient groups was often not included in letters that were sent. The response rate for the referral specific e-mail surveys was 56% for PCPs and 53% for specialists. In this e-mail survey, 68% of specialists reported that they received no information from the PCP prior to specific referral visits, and 38% of these said that this information would have been helpful. In addition, four weeks after specific referral visits, 25% of PCPs had still not received any information from specialists. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial problems were present in the referral process. The major issues were physician dissatisfaction, lack of timeliness, and inadequate content of interphysician communication. Information obtained from the general survey and referral-specific survey was congruent. Efforts to improve the referral system could improve both physician satisfaction and quality of patient care.     

Language in dementia of recent referral

Twenty-four recently referred patients with dementia were assessed on a range of language tests and a mental status test. The tasks which appeared to present the most difficulties for the patients were written spelling, pragmatic processing tasks like sentence disambiguation and proverb interpretation. 'Straight' linguistic processing tasks sensitive to aphasia, like oral reading, serial identification of objects, naming and correction of semantically incorrect sentences, appeared to present fewer problems. It is concluded that certain language tasks may be useful and sensitive detectors of developing dementia, and that in early dementia those aspects of language which depend on straight linguistic processing can be relatively preserved.     

Timing of referral of terminally Ill patients to an outpatient hospice

Objective: Since inordinately long or short lengths of stay at hospice can create problems for patients, providers, and payers, the author sought to identify predictors of timing of patient referral. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 405 hospice outpatients was analyzed with Cox regression to evaluate the effect on length of stay of patient age, gender, race, diagnosis, activity level, mental status, dyspnea, insurance, income, religion, and home support, and of referring physician specialty. Results: Median survival time at the hospice was 29 days; 15% of the patients died within seven days and 12% lived longer than 180 days. A one-unit increment in a six-unit activity-level scale was associated with a 19% reduction in the rate of death. Compared with reference groups, oriented patients and depressed patients had 57% and 35% lower death rates; patients with prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease had 50% and 58% lower death rates. There was no significant gender, race, religion, insurance, or income difference among the patient groups. Conclusions: Inappropriately early or late referral occurs in a substantial minority of patients referred to the hospice under study. Closer attention to accurate prognostication in different types of terminally ill patients and more timely referral to hospice might help to optimize the use of this health care resource from both patient and societal perspectives. Received from the Division of General Internal Medicine, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program and by the Warren-Whitman-Richardson Fellowship from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Christakis is the recipient of a NRSA Fellowship from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Computer facilities were provided by the Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania. The opinions and conclusions herein are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.     

Correlates of cognitive dysfunction in an ambulatory elderly population

Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were studied in an ambulatory elderly population to identify correlates with self-reported signs, symptoms, diseases, drugs and laboratory values. A total of 1,264 subjects were studied including 844 women and 420 men. In this study, 5.0% of men and 5.3% of women scored less than 24 on the MMSE. A linear-regression model revealed eleven factors of significance in predicting scores on the MMSE. The most important predictors were age (p less than 0.0001), self-reported memory loss (p less than 0.0001), complaints of swollen feet or ankles (p less than 0.0010), the total number of diseases reported (0.0006) and the serum lactate dehydrogenase concentration (p less than 0.0098). Results suggest that cognitive function in the elderly is not related to the general level of health or consistently affected by specific disease states.     

Crohn's disease over 20 years after diagnosis in a referral population

OBJECTIVES: Patients frequently ask questions about the lifetime prognosis of Crohn's disease. The aim of this study was to describe the outcomes of Crohn's disease more than 20 years after diagnosis. METHODS: Data from all patients with Crohn's disease whose diagnosis had been performed before 1st January 1978 were analyzed. All referred patients filled in a medical and health-related quality-of-life questionnaire. RESULTS: Among 273 patients with Crohn's disease diagnosed more than 20 years ago, 141 (52%) patients answered our questionnaire, 45 (16%) patients were alive but did not wish to answer our questionnaire, 51 (19%) could not be traced and 36 (13%) died before July 1998. At the end of follow-up, 25.7 (20.0-59.3) years after diagnosis, 24% had a relapse in the previous 12 months, and 48% and 28% had quiescent disease with and without treatment, respectively. These ratios were not different from those observed three years after Crohn's disease diagnosis. Sixteen patients died within 20 years after CD diagnosis, including 11 from CD-related causes. The risk of death estimated by Kaplan-Meier life-tables analysis was non-significantly higher if death was related to CD. An ileal or colic adenocarcinoma was noted in 6 (3.4%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Crohn's disease activity does not burn out with time, and roughly one-quarter of the patients had active disease 20 years after diagnosis.     

Sleep problems and the risk for sleep disorders in an outpatient veteran population

We used a self-report questionnaire to identify outpatients with chronic symptoms of sleep disorders and/or high pretest probability for sleep apnea as well as for restless legs syndrome (RLS), insomnia, and narcolepsy. Surveys were presented to patients waiting for an appointment in Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center clinics in Northeast Ohio, USA. Items addressed the frequency of snoring behavior; wake time sleepiness or fatigue and history of obesity/hypertension for high risk for sleep apnea (Netzer et al. 1999), along with other symptoms, were scored as positive vs negative risk for insomnia, narcolepsy, and RLS. Of the patients offered the surveys, 886 (59.2%) provided timely responses to the questionnaire. Mean age was 62.5 years (range, 19 to 85 years); 95% were males; mean body mass index was 29.3 kg/cm² (range, 15.1 to 57.5 kg/cm²); and mean Epworth Sleepiness Scale score was 8.3 (range, 1 to 22) with 4.6% having a score >17. Of the respondents, 47.4% met high-risk criteria for sleep apnea, 41.7% for insomnia, 19% for restless leg syndrome, and 4.7% for narcolepsy. Twenty-four percent reported use of sleeping pills or bedtime alcohol. Drowsy driving >3–4 days a week or every day was reported in 5.7%. VA primary care patients have high prevalence for pretest probability for sleep apnea. This population also reports chronic symptoms for other sleep disorders and for drowsy driving.     

Clinical phenotypes of obstructive airway diseases in an outpatient population

Background and Objectives: Historically, obstructive airway diseases such as asthma and COPD are classified as different diseases. Although the definitions are clearly described, classification of patients into these traditional, clinical disease entity can be difficult. Recent evidence that there are complex, overlapping phenotypes of obstructive lung disease. Our aim was to capture clinical phenotypes of obstructive diseases through the use of cluster analysis in a representative patient population at a common Dutch pulmonary outpatient clinic. Clinical physiological and cellular/ molecular markers were used in the analysis. Methods: To carry out the cluster analysis, an imputed dataset was created from a random sample of 191 adult patients chosen from a pulmonary outpatient clinic. The selection criteria from the sample included patients with a doctor's diagnosis for asthma or COPD. Detailed assessment of patient pulmonary function, blood eosinophil counts, allergic sensitisation and smoking history was collected. Results: We observed four distinct clusters with different clinical characteristics of obstructive lung diseases. Cluster 1: patients with a history of extensive cigarette smoking, airway obstruction without signs of emphysema; cluster 2: patients with features of the emphysematous type of COPD; cluster 3: patients with characteristics of allergic asthma; cluster 4: patients with features suggesting an overlap syndrome of atopic asthma and COPD. Conclusion: Four phenotypes of obstructive lung disease were identified amongst patients clinically labelled as asthma or COPD. These findings emphasize the concept that there are different phenotypes of obstructive lung diseases, including overlapping and complementary disease entities. These phenotypes of chronic airways disease can serve to tailor disease management.     

Subclinical thyrotoxicosis in an outpatient population - predictors of outcome

Objective Individuals with endogenous subclinical thyrotoxicosis (SCT) may subsequently require treatment for overt disease. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of progression to hyperthyroidism and factors influencing this outcome. Design This is a retrospective analysis of outcome in 96 consecutive patients (aged 16–91 years) diagnosed with SCT over a 6‐year period. Individuals with secondary causes of TSH suppression were excluded. Mean follow‐up was 3·8 years. The significance of age, gender, family history of thyrotoxicosis, symptoms at presentation, thyroid nodule(s) on clinical examination, entry TSH level, antithyroid antibody status and ^99mTc pertechnetate thyroid imaging results on subsequent development of overt thyrotoxicosis was assessed. Results Progression to overt thyrotoxicosis was seen in 8% at 1 year, 16% at 2 years, 21% at 3 years and 26% at 5 years. Multivariate analysis determined that diagnosis as determined by scintiscan to be the only independent predictor of outcome (P = 0·003) with the cumulative percentage requiring therapy at 5 years being 9% for subclinical Graves’ disease, 21% for multinodular goitre and 61% for the autonomous nodule subgroup. Conclusions Progression of SCT to overt hyperthyroidism occu‐rred at a rate of 5–8% per year with disease aetiology, as determined by thyroid scintigraphy, significantly influencing risk of progression.     

Smoking rates in dementia patients in the outpatient setting

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of tobacco use in patients diagnosed with dementia or cognitive impairment in an outpatient setting as they may be unsafe smokers and present safety risks to themselves and others. We conducted a retrospective chart review of new patients between 1/06 and 8/07 who were diagnosed with dementia or cognitive impairment in a geriatric outpatient practice. The data collected included age, gender, tobacco use patterns and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score. Data was analyzed using SAS 9.1 for Windows (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Former tobacco use rates in our study were similar to nationwide published rates for elderly over 65 (39.9% vs. 39.5%, respectively, p = 0.99). However, only two patients in our study (1.32%, 95%CI = 0.16-4.70) were current tobacco users compared with published census data that 10.2% of those over 65 are current smokers nationwide (p < 0.001). Our study revealed a much lower rate of current tobacco use in our series of cognitively impaired patients. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for decreased smoking in those with cognitive impairment and its clinical implications.     

Information and referral service usage among caregivers for dementia patients

Questionnaires were mailed to 257 callers of a toll-free telephone "helpline" specializing in Alzheimer's disease and related dementing illnesses; 125 (48.6%) were completed and returned. On the average, 3.94 requests for information were made per call. The most common requests concerned services delivered to the home, general information about dementia, information about adult day care, and support group information. Results indicated that a telephone-based information and referral helpline is useful in disseminating knowledge about resources to caregivers of older community-residing adults with cognitive impairment.     

Triage of referrals to an outpatient rheumatology clinic: analysis of referral information and triage

OBJECTIVE: Rheumatologists triage referrals in order to assess those patients who may benefit from early intervention. Success of triage strategies requires accurate transfer of clinical information between the primary caregiver and rheumatologist. We describe a prototype triage system and formally evaluate the quality of referral content to a rheumatologist's practice. METHODS: All new referrals were reviewed by a rheumatologist and, based on the information conferred, assigned a grade using a prototype triage system. This grade reflected each case's suspected urgency and guided the timing of consultation. After the initial rheumatologic consultation a post hoc grade was assigned to each case based on the clinical information gathered. Agreement between referral and consultation grades was assessed. All cases graded as urgent at the time of consultation, and thus felt to be truly urgent, were examined for the quality of content of their referral letters. RESULTS: Two hundred six referrals were evaluated. Ninety-six cases (47%) experienced a grade change between referral and consultation. Thirty-five cases (17%) were upgraded to urgent status after consultation, reflecting inappropriately triaged truly urgent patients. Analysis of referral letters for truly urgent cases revealed the absence of a presumptive diagnosis, symptom duration, and documentation of involved joints in over 30% of referrals. CONCLUSION: The absence of basic historical, examination, and laboratory markers accounted for inappropriate triage of urgent cases. Our study recognizes dysfunction within the current model of care and questions the development of standardized referral tools as a solution. Other models of care should be investigated for this patient population.