Age- and Gender-related Peculiarities of Patients with Delirium in the Cardiac ICU
ncbi.nlm.nih.govOur investigation presented a number of associated peculiarities related to gender and age. It was shown that delirium is a severe complication that more often affects men amongst patients < 65 years old and more frequently affects women in the age group of ≥ 85 years. Male patients < 65 years old, who develop delirium should be treated with more caution because they tend to have more serious forms of disorder and a poorer prognosis. Female patients who experienced delirium demonstrated a higher prevalence of hypertension, hyponatraemia, heart failure, cardiac rhythm and conduction disorders, myocardial infarction (MI), and dementia. The men, who were on average seven years younger than the women, significantly more often had hypokalaemia, double- or triple-vessel coronary artery disease, and sepsis. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate patients with delirium in a Lithuanian ICCU. From a sample of 19,007 ICCU admissions, 337 (1.8%) had documented delirium diagnosed through liaison and consultation with a psychiatrist and were included in the final analysis.