Palliative and hospice care in gynecologic cancer: A review

Despite the increasing availability of palliative care, oncology providers often misunderstand and underutilize these resources. The goals of palliative care are relief of suffering and provision of the best possible quality of life for both the patient and her family, regardless of where she is in the natural history of her disease. Lack of understanding and awareness of the services provided by palliative care physicians underlie barriers to referral. Oncologic providers spend a significant amount of time palliating the symptoms of cancer and its treatment; involvement of specialty palliative care providers can assist in managing the complex patient. Patients with gynecologic malignancies remain an ideal population for palliative care intervention. This review of the literature explores the current state of palliative care in the treatment of gynecologic cancers and its implications for the quality and cost of this treatment.     

Priority-setting and rationing in healthcare: Evidence from the English experience

In a context of ever increasing demand, the recent economic downturn has placed further pressure on decision-makers to effectively target healthcare resources. Over recent years there has been a push to develop more explicit evidence-based priority-setting processes, which aim to be transparent and inclusive in their approach and a number of analytical tools and sources of evidence have been developed and utilised at national and local levels. This paper reports findings from a qualitative research study which investigated local priority-setting activity across five English Primary Care Trusts, between March and November 2012. Findings demonstrate the dual aims of local decision-making processes: to improve the overall effectiveness of priority-setting (i.e. reaching ‘correct’ resource allocation decisions); and to increase the acceptability of priority-setting processes for those involved in both decision-making and implementation. Respondents considered priority-setting processes to be compartmentalised and peripheral to resource planning and allocation. Further progress was required with regard to disinvestment and service redesign with respondents noting difficulty in implementing decisions. While local priority-setters had begun to develop more explicit processes, public awareness and input remained limited. The leadership behaviours required to navigate the political complexities of working within and across organisations with differing incentives systems and cultures remained similarly underdeveloped.     

Current surgical management of melanoma

The surgical management of melanoma has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Through the development and conduction of well-designed, prospective, randomized trials, we have been able to refine the way that we surgically manage patients with melanoma. Indeed, many important issues have been addressed through such trials: the proper surgical margins for the primary melanoma, utility of the elective lymph node dissection and the role for selective lymphadenectomy, to name a few. This review will also discuss what we have learned from past clinical trials and address several issues with regards to where we are going in the future.     

高强度间歇训练与中等强度持续训练对冠心病患者心肺功能影响的Meta分析

背景　冠心病（CHD）是心血管疾病的头号杀手，患病率和发病率一直居高不下，运动作为CHD患者的重要干预手段，一直受到广泛关注。高强度间歇训练（HIIT）与中等强度持续训练（MICT）对于改善CHD患者的心肺功能均显示出有效性，但研究结果尚存争议。因此，选择更合理的运动干预手段，对CHD患者的康复至关重要。目的　探讨HIIT与MICT对CHD患者心肺功能的影响，为CHD患者运动处方的制订提供合理依据。方法　计算机检索PubMed、EMBase、The Cochrane Library、Web of Science、中国生物医学文献数据库（CBM）、中国知网（CNKI）、维普网和万方数据知识服务平台，搜集应用HIIT与MICT干预CHD患者心肺功能的文献，检索时限均为建库至2020年11月。收集第一作者、发表时间、国家、总样本、性别、年龄、运动类型、运动周期、运动频率、运动处方（HIIT、MICT）、结局指标〔峰值摄氧量（VO2peak），无氧阈（VO2AT），最大心率（HRmax），血压（BP），呼吸交换比率（RER），CO2通气当量斜率（VE/VCO2 Slope），静息心率（HRrest）〕等信息，采用Cochrane偏倚风险评估工具对纳入的研究进行方法学质量评估，采用Review Manage 5.3和Stata 15.1软件进行统计学分析。结果　共纳入了12篇文献，其中存在低、中、高风险的研究分别为3篇、8篇和1篇。纳入研究总样本量为618例，其中接受HIIT、MICT干预的样本量分别为305例和313例。Meta分析结果显示：HIIT对VO2peak〔MD=1.63，95%CI（0.64，2.62），P=0.001〕、VO2AT〔MD=2.62，95%CI（0.82，4.42），P=0.004〕、HRmax〔MD=5.41，95%CI（2.28，8.53），P=0.000 7〕、SBP〔MD=3.16，95%CI（0.26，6.06），P=0.03〕的改善效果均优于MICT。两种运动模式对RER〔MD=0.01，95%CI（-0.01，0.03），P=0.27〕、VE/VCO2 Slope〔MD=-0.26，95%CI（-1.87，1.34），P=0.75〕、HRrest〔MD=1.19，95%CI（-0.42，2.80），P=0.15〕、DBP〔MD=2.56，95%CI（-0.21，5.32），P=0.07〕的改善效果比较，差异无统计学意义。亚组分析结果显示，对于干预周期在12周及以上的患者，HIIT对于VO2peak、RER、VO2AT和HRmax的改善效果优于MICT（P<0.05）；而干预周期在12周以下的患者，两种运动模式对于各指标的改善效果比较，差异无统计学意义（P>0.05）。结论　HIIT在改善患者VO2peak、VO2AT、HRmax以及BP方面均优于MICT，且干预周期12周及以上的CHD患者HIIT较MICT改善心肺功能的优势更明显。     

Longitudinal person-centered measurement: A psychometric evaluation of the Preparedness for Colorectal Cancer Surgery Questionnaire (PCSQ)

ObjectiveThe Preparedness for Colorectal Cancer Surgery Questionnaire (PCSQ) was previously developed in Swedish to assess patients’ knowledge seeking and sense making capabilities. Aiming to measure preparedness at different phases during the pre-surgery and recovery period, the objectives were to (a) evaluate psychometric properties of the longitudinal PCSQ, (b) establish measurement invariance over time, and (c) describe change in preparedness.MethodsElective colorectal cancer surgery patients completed a questionnaire at five time points from pre-surgery until 6 months post-surgery (n = 250). The longitudinal PCSQ consists of 23 items measuring four domains: Searching for and making use of information, Understanding and involvement in care, Making sense of recovery, Support and access to care. Psychometric analyses, including confirmatory factor analysis, were applied to evaluate internal consistency reliability and ascertain invariance over time of the measurement structure and parameters.ResultsThe psychometric analyses revealed good fit of the measurement models, high internal consistency reliability (≥.94), and support for configural, metric and scalar measurement invariance of the four PCSQ domains. Patients reported lower levels of preparedness after surgery than pre-surgery.ConclusionThe adapted version of the PCSQ can be used for longitudinal analyses.Practice implicationsThe measurement of preparedness is important for evaluating person-centred outcomes before and during recovery from colorectal cancer surgery.     

Impact of the sustained control of cardiovascular risk factors on first episode heart failure: The relevant role of primary care

Background: The role of cardiovascular risk factor control in the development of heart failure (HF) has not yet been clearly established.

Objective: To determine the effect of cardiovascular risk factor control on the occurrence of a first episode of hospital admission for HF.

Methods: A case-control study using propensity score-matching was carried out to analyse the occurrence of first hospital admission for HF taking into account the degree of cardiovascular risk factor control over the previous 24 months. All patients admitted to the cardiology unit of the Hospital del Mar between 2008 and 2011 because of a first episode of HF were considered cases. Controls were selected from the population in the hospital catchment area who were using primary care services. Cardiovascular risk factor measurements in the primary healthcare electronic medical records prior to the first HF episode were analysed.

Results: After the matching process, 645 participants were analysed (129 HF cases and 516 controls). Patients suffering a first HF episode had modest increments in body mass index and blood pressure levels during the previous two years. Adjusted odds ratio for experiencing a first HF hospital admission episode according to systolic blood pressure levels and body mass index was (OR: 1.031, 95% CI: 1.001–1.04), and (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03–1.15), respectively.

Conclusion: Increased levels of body mass index and systolic blood pressure during the previous 24 months may determine a higher risk of having a first HF hospital admission episode.     

Forty-Two Months Experience of Flupenthixol Decanoate in the Maintenance Treatment of Schizophrenia

Summary

Further experience with maintenance depot treatment of 199 schizophrenic patients over a 42-month period has confirmed an earlier report by the same investigators of the effectiveness of flupenthixol decanoate as an antipsychotic agent and its value in maintaining schizophrenics in the community. Ten percent of patients required re-admission to hospital for treatment of psychotic relapse during this 3\-year period. Over the whole period only 28% of patients showed extrapyramidal side-effects, in most cases trivial in degree, so that the routine prophylactic prescribing of anti-parkinsonism drugs with flupenthixol decanoate would appear to be unjustified. Depression was noted in 15 % of patients (10 % severe; 5 % moderate), an incidence which, though no higher than that encountered in fluphenazine-treated patients, was disappointingly high for a drug used, in lower dosage, specifically for the treatment of neurotic depression. Other side-effects noted were transient hypomania and anergia, each in 7% of the group. There was no unequivocal evidence of toxicity. The mean dose required by the first 78 patients (31.97 to 33.46?mg./3 weeks) did not vary very significantly over a 2-year treatment period.