Quality of life in a heterogeneous sample of caregivers of cancer patients: an in‐depth interview study

MANCINI J., BAUMSTARCK‐BARRAU K., SIMEONI M.‐C., GROB J.‐J., MICHEL G., TARPIN C., LOUNDOU A.‐D., LAMBERT A., CLÉMENT A. & AUQUIER P. (2010) European Journal of Cancer Care
Quality of life in a heterogeneous sample of caregivers of cancer patients: an in‐depth interview study To establish the best approach to develop a quality of life (QoL) questionnaire for cancer‐patient caregivers, this study attempts to identify primary domains of QoL in terms of their impact on a purposive sample of caregivers. Seventy‐seven informal adult caregivers of cancer patients (breast cancer, paediatric haematological malignancies or melanoma) with different relationships with the patients (parents, children, spouses, siblings, and friends) were recruited at three specialised French centres and extensively interviewed. Caregivers' lives were altered in several domains: psychological well‐being, leisure and everyday activities, relationships with institutional caregivers, occupation and finances, relationships with family and friends, physical well‐being, and relationship with the patient. The relative importance of these domains varied mainly in association with the caregiver‐patient relationship. Multiple correspondence analysis identified two isolated clusters: children, and, most significantly, friends and siblings. The latter groups emphasised the repercussions on their psychological well‐being and their relationship with the patient, but were less willing to discuss the impact on their relationship with caregivers and on occupation, finances, leisure, and everyday activities. This study focuses on the caregiver's perspective and advocates the development of a short QoL core questionnaire. Additional modules should be cancer‐specific or dedicated to specifics of the caregiver‐patient relationship.     

血、尿中安眠酮及其代谢物的测定

通过一例安眠酮中毒病人血、尿中安眠酮及其代谢物的测定,描述了用紫外光谱(uv)、气相色谱(GC)和气相色谱质谱(GC/MS)法测定安眠酮及其代谢物的系统分析方法。样品的提取净化采用液一液萃取和固相萃取两种方法,都得到了很好的结果。紫外光谱用于测定血、尿中安眠酮和其代谢物的总量;气相色谱用于测定血、尿中安眠酮原药的含量;气相色谱质谱则用于鉴定血、尿中的安眠酮及其代谢物。除安眠酮外,血、尿中共检出10种安眠酮代谢物,其中包括两种乙酰化代谢物。此法还为临床救治提供指导。     

Traditional Chinese manual acupuncture for management of obesity: A systematic review

AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of obesity by reviewing currently available randomised controlled trials. METHODS: This review followed the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Fifteen English and three Chinese databases were searched from their respective inceptions until July 2014. Key words used in the search consisted of acupuncture, needles, obesity, overweight, randomised trial and their synonyms. The risk of bias of included studies was assessed. The differences in effect size between acupuncture and control (including sham, no treatment, western medicine and dietary therapy/exercise) groups were compared using Cochrane Collaboration’s RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: Two thousand six hundred and twenty-one records were identified; after full-text articles assessed for eligibility, 9 of them met inclusion criteria. Majority of included studies had unclear or high risk of bias across all domains. All included studies had high or unclear risk of bias in randomisation, blinding and outcome data. Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture was more effective for reducing body weight and body mass index than no treatment group. Manual acupuncture was also superior to dietary therapy alone for decreasing body weight. With dietary therapy as co-intervention, combined acupuncture group achieved lower body mass index than combined sham acupuncture group or dietary therapy alone group at the end of treatment period. No severe adverse events from acupuncture group were reported from all included studies. CONCLUSION: Due to the poor quality of included studies the effectiveness of acupuncture cannot be concluded. Better-designed, large-scale, randomised, sham-controlled clinical trials with long-term follow-up are needed.     

Niedermolekulare Heparine bei Patienten in der Onkologie Thromboseprophylaxe

Bei Tumorpatienten ist das Thromboserisiko deutlich erh?ht. Ursache dafür sind komplexe Wechselwirkungen zwischen Tumorzellen in der Blutbahn und Endothelzellen, die die Thrombose- und wahrscheinlich auch die Metastasenbildung begünstigen. Der Einsatz von Heparinen k?nnte sich daher in mehrfacher Hinsicht als sinnvoll erweisen.