Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of Salvia officinalis in controlling hot flashes in prostate cancer patients treated with androgen deprivation

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Salvia officinalis in controlling hot flashes in prostate cancer patients treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Ten patients experiencing hot flashes were included in a single‐centre prospective pilot study. Treatment consisted of 150 mg of Salvia officinalis extract taken orally three times daily. A diary questionnaire scoring hot flashes, subjective side effects and quality of life (QOL) had to be completed. Clinical examination was performed at every visit and the concentration of ADT‐linked hormones, haemoglobin and cholesterol was measured before, during and after ending treatment. Before the start of treatment, a 1 week baseline registration was performed. An analysis of variance with time of measurement as a within‐subject factor was performed. When analysing the hot flashes score, one patient was excluded due to insufficient diary notes. The mean weekly score declined from 112 (SD = 71) at baseline to 59 (SD = 54) at the end of treatment (p = 0.002). Hot flashes diminished significantly from the first week up to and including week 3. This was maintained during treatment. There was no effect on QOL. There were no side effects. It is concluded that Salvia officinalis is efficient and safe in the treatment hot flashes, without improving QOL. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Breastfeeding protects against acute gastroenteritis due to rotavirus in infants

To assess whether breastfeeding protects against acute gastroenteritis (AGE) due to rotavirus (RV) infection compared to RV-negative AGE (RV−) in children age 0–12 months. Data from a community-based study of children with AGE from 30 pediatric practices in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria were evaluated. A case–control design was conducted with RV-positive AGE (RV+) cases and RV− AGE as controls. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using log-linear regression models adjusting for child’s age, family size, number of siblings, child care attendance, and nationality. A total of 1,256 stool samples were collected from infants with AGE; 315 (25%) were RV+ and 941 RV−. Being breastfed in the period of disease inception reduced the risk of AGE due to RV+ (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.37–0.76). In infants 0–6 months of age, the protective effect was stronger (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.19–0.55) than in 7–12-month-old children. Our study adds to the evidence of a protective concurrent effect of breastfeeding against rotavirus infection in infants, particularly in children 6 months and younger. Breastfeeding is important to diminish rotavirus-related gastroenteritis in infants before vaccination can be introduced.     

Different accuracies of rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent, turbidimetric, and agglutination D-dimer assays for thrombosis exclusion: impact on diagnostic work-ups of outpatients with suspected deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism

The requirement for a safe diagnostic strategy should be based on an overall posttest incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) of less than 1%, with a negative predictive value of more than 99 to 100% during 3-month follow-up. Compression ultrasonography (CUS) and spiral computed tomography (CT) currently are the methods of choice to confirm or rule out deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), respectively. CUS has a negative predictive value (NPV) of 97 to 98%, indicating the need to improve the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected DVT by clinical score assessment and D-dimer testing. Spiral CT as a stand-alone method detects all clinically relevant PEs and a large number of alternative diagnoses. It rules out PE with a NPV of 98 to 99%. Spiral CT is expensive, emphasizing the need to improve the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected PE by the use of clinical score assessment and D-dimer testing. Clinical score assessment for DVT and PE has not safely ruled out VTE in multicenter studies and in routine daily practices. Modification of the Wells clinical score assessment for DVT by elimination of the "minus 2 points" for alternative diagnosis will improve the reproducibility of the clinical score assessment. The combination of a first negative CUS and a negative SimpliRed or an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) VIDAS D-dimer of < 1,000 ng/mL safely exclude DVT (NPV > 99%) irrespective of clinical score assessment and without the need to repeat CUS in approximately 60 to 70% of patients. The rapid quantitative and qualitative agglutination D-dimer assays for the exclusion of VTE are not sensitive enough as stand-alone tests and should be used in combination with clinical score assessment. A normal rapid ELISA VIDAS D-dimer test as a stand-alone test safely excludes DVT and PE, with a NPV of 99 to 100%, irrespective of clinical score, without the need of CUS or spiral CT. The combined strategy of a rapid ELISA VIDAS D-dimer followed by objective testing with CUS for DVT and by spiral CT for PE will reduce the need for noninvasive imaging techniques by 40 to 50%.     

bc-GenExMiner: an easy-to-use online platform for gene prognostic analyses in breast cancer

Gene prognostic meta-analyses should benefit from breast tumour genomic data obtained during the last decade. The aim was to develop a user-friendly, web-based application, based on DNA microarrays results, called “breast cancer Gene-Expression Miner” (bc-GenExMiner) to improve gene prognostic analysis performance by using the same bioinformatics process. bc-GenExMiner was developed as a web-based tool including a MySQL relational database. Survival analyses are performed with R statistical software and packages. Molecular subtyping was performed by means of three single sample predictors (SSPs) and three subtype clustering models (SCMs). Twenty-one public data sets have been included. Among the 3,414 recovered breast cancer patients, 1,209 experienced a pejorative event. Molecular subtyping by means of three SSPs and three SCMs was performed for 3,063 patients. Furthermore, three robust lists of stable subtyped patients were built to maximize reliability of molecular assignment. Gene prognostic analyses are done by means of univariate Cox proportional hazards model and may be conducted on cohorts split by nodal (N), oestrogen receptor (ER), or molecular subtype status. To evaluate independent prognostic impact of genes relative to Nottingham Prognostic Index and Adjuvant! Online, adjusted Cox proportional hazards models are performed. bc-GenExMiner allows researchers without specific computation skills to easily and quickly evaluate the in vivo prognostic role of genes in breast cancer by means of Cox proportional hazards model on large pooled cohorts, which may be split according to different prognostic parameters: N, ER, and molecular subtype. Prognostic analyses by molecular subtype may also be performed in three robust molecular subtype classifications.     

Young carers in Germany: to live on as normal as possible – a grounded theory study

Background  

In contrast to a growing body of research on the situation of adult family care givers, in Germany hardly anything is known about the situation of children and teenagers who are involved in the care of their relatives.     

Die chirurgische Diathermie bei der konservativen Behandlung inoperabler Larynx- und Pharynxkarzinome

Ohne Zusammenfassung