You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 10, Issue 5
  • A decrease of ⩾2 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination was the best determinant of delirium in elderly patients admitted to hospital

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Diagnosis
A decrease of ⩾2 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination was the best determinant of delirium in elderly patients admitted to hospital

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebm.10.5.149

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    O’Keeffe ST, Mulkerrin EC, Nayeem K, et al. Use of serial Mini-Mental State Examinations to diagnose and monitor delirium in elderly hospital patients. J Am Geriatr Soc 2005;53:867–70.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    
 
 Q In elderly patients admitted to hospital, are serial Mini-Mental State Examinations (MMSEs) accurate for diagnosing delirium?

    Clinical impact ratings Internal medicine ★★★★★★☆ Geriatrics ★★★★★☆☆

    METHODS

    Embedded ImageDesign:

    blinded comparison of MMSE with geriatrician diagnosis of delirium.

    Embedded ImageSetting:

    a hospital in Galway, Republic of Ireland.

    Embedded ImagePatients:

    165 patients who were ⩾65 years of age (mean age 79 y, 46% women) and were admitted to hospital from the accident and emergency department. 36 patients had dementia. The most common diagnoses were respiratory (n = 68), cardiovascular (n = 35), gastrointestinal (n = 20), and cerebrovascular (n = 19). Exclusion criteria: severe aphasia or deafness, poor prognosis, or hospital stay <6 days.

    Embedded ImageDescription of test:

    MMSE was given on day 1 and …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • For correspondence: Dr S O’Keeffe, Galway Regional Hospitals, Galway, Ireland. S.okeeffewhb.ie

    • Source of funding: no external funding.