COVID-19 MORTALITY IN LOMBARDY: THE VULNERABILITY OF THE OLDEST OLD AND THE RESILIENCE OF MALE CENTENARIANS

Italy was the first European nation to be affected by COVID-19. The biggest cluster of cases occurred in Lombardy, the most populous Italian region, and elderly men were the population hit in the hardest way. Besides its high infectivity, COVID-19 causes a severe cytokine storm and old people, especially those with comorbidities, appear to be the most vulnerable, presumably in connection to inflammaging. In centenarians inflammaging is much lower than predicted by their chronological age and females, presenting survival advantage in almost all centenarian populations, outnumber males, a phenomenon particularly evident in Northern Italy. Within this scenario, we wondered if: a) the COVID-19 mortality in centenarians was lower than that in people aged between 50 and 80 and b) the mortality from COVID-19 in nonagenarians and centenarians highlighted gender differences. We checked COVID-19-related vulnerability/mortality at the peak of infection (March 2020), using data on total deaths (i.e. not only confirmed COVID-19 cases). Our conclusion is that excess mortality increases steadily up to very old ages and at the same time men older than 90 years become relatively more resilient than age-matched females

Risks associated with intensive blood pressure control in older patients

Hypertension management forms a cornerstone of cardiovascular prevention. Strong evidence is available supporting the benefits of blood pressure (BP) lowering in older adults and recent studies indicate that intensive BP control may provide additional advantages on cardiovascular and mortality risk, also at older ages. Yet, in older adults the cardiovascular benefit of intensive treatment may come at the expense of increase in adverse events. Indeed, advanced age and frailty may modify the risk/benefit ratio of BP lowering due to a greater predisposition to hypotension and more severe consequences deriving from treatment-related adverse effects. This mostly applies to individuals with poor health status and limited life expectancy, in whom aggressive BP lowering may not lead to cardiovascular benefits, but rather increase the risk of short-term treatment-related complications. Furthermore, the potential harms of intensive BP control might be underestimated in clinical trials due to exclusion criteria which preclude patients with frailty and multimorbidity from being eligible. Syncope and falls are the most frequently mentioned antihypertensive-related safety concern, but aggressive BP lowering may negatively affect also renal function, cognitive performance, quality of life and survival. With the growing emphasis on intensive treatment strategies, raising awareness on potential harms associated with aggressive BP lowering might help improve hypertension management in older adults and encourage implementation of clinical research on safety issues. Given these premises, we present a narrative review illustrating the most relevant risk potentially associated with intensive BP control in older patients

Does our microbiota eat with or without gluten?

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Microbiota and Kidney: Is There a Correlation?

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The “Microbiome”: A Protagonist in COVID-19 Era

Respiratory infections are among the main causes of hospitalization and mortality, particularly in elderly patients [...

Microbiota and Kidney: Is There a Correlation?

The relationship between microbiota and chronic kidney disease (CKD) has long been known [...

Influence of Mediterranean diet on human gut microbiota

Gut microbiota changes correlate with health status. Literature data on gut microbiota show that all dietary changes can induce the alteration of gut microbiota composition. Mediterranean diet (MD) is associated with a reduction of all-cause mortality and in this review, we analyzed its interactions with human microbiota. In particular, we explored the modulation of the human microbiota, in response to MD adherence, focusing the attention on polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) ω-3 and fiber. Evidences suggest that MD is able to modulate the gut microbiota, increasing its diversity. In fact, a Mediterranean-type dietary pattern is associated with specific gut microbiota characteristics. The available evidence, suggests that gut microbiota of subjects that follow a MD is significantly different from subjects that follow a Western diet model. In fact, the latter show an increased gut permeability, which is responsible for metabolic endotoxemia. For this reason, we can speculate that the gut microbiota of the subjects following a MD is able to prevent the onset of chronic non-communicable degenerative diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer. However, in order to understand these correlations with dietary patterns, controlled intervention studies on the gut microbiota composition and activity are needed