Episode Details

Jaime Perales, PhD, presents statistics, screening tools and useful resources for primary care providers for Alzheimer’s disease. The KIDs list is presented. Question of the month: Fever and Cough.

Introduction: KIDs List and Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly
By Hector Arreaza, MD

Today is May 3, 2021.  

In family medicine, we believe in caring for patients “from the cradle to the grave.” During this introduction, we want to inform first of the KIDs list[1] and then some updates on cognitive impairment screening in older adults[2].

First, KIDs stand for Key Potentially Inappropriate Drugs in Pediatrics. It is a list of medications that are potentially inappropriate in children. It contains 67 drugs with their risks, recommendations, strength of recommendation and quality of evidence. Common meds include anti-infectives, antipsychotics, dopamine antagonists and GI agents. 85% of these meds require a prescription, and are taken by mouth, or used by parenteral route or even for external use. 

For example: Mineral oil, oral, carries the risk of lipid pneumonitis, recommended to avoid in patients younger than 1 year old, this recommendation is strong with low quality of evidence. For all the “abuelas” (Spanish for grandmothers) out there, listen to this: Camphor carries a risk of seizures, the recommendation is “use with caution in children.” However, the recommendation is weak and quality of evidence is low, but the concern is enough to include it on the list, in other words, use “vi-vah-pore-oo” with caution in children. I recommend you look up the KIDs list and use your clinical judgment to incorporate it into your practice. 

From childhood, now we go to the elderly. On February 25, 2020, the USPSTF posted their final recommendation statement regarding screening for cognitive impairment in older adults. This is a Grade I recommendation (Insufficient Evidence). It means that more research is needed to recommend for or against it. This is the same recommendation given in 2014. 

An article published in JAMA on the same date, Feb 25, 2020, reports that screening instruments can adequately detect cognitive impairment, however there is no evidence that this screening improves patient or caregiver outcomes or causes harm. It is still uncertain if early detection of cognitive impairment is important to provide interventions for patients or caregivers with significant clinical benefits.

Jaime Perales, PhD, will present some statistics on Alzheimer’s disease, he will explain some useful tools to screen for cognitive impairment and address the issue of Alzheimer’s disease at the primary care level. 

This is Rio Bravo qWeek, your weekly dose of knowledge brought to you by the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program from Bakersfield, California. Our program is affiliated with UCLA, and it’s sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, Let Us Be Your Healthcare Home. 

Question of the Month: Fever and Cough
Written by Hector Arreaza, MD, read by Claudia Carranza, MD, and Valerie Civelli, MD

This is a 69-yo male patient, who has history of controlled hypertension. He comes to an urgent care clinic for acute onset of fever (102 F), cough, and shortness of breath which has progressively worsened over the last 3 days. 

He does NOT smoke tobacco, but uses recreational marijuana once a month, and drinks 1-2 beers a week. He goes to the doctor once a year for check-ups. He takes benazepril 10 mg daily for his hypertension. He does not believe in vaccines and his last shot was a tetanus shot 5 years ago. He has no surgical history. He retired as an accountant 5 years ago. 

Vital signs are normal except for tachycardia of 110 (his baseline is 85) and temperature of 101.5 F (38.6 C). He has bibasilar crackles on auscultation. You perform labs in clinic and he has a white count of 13.5, and a chest x