Cancer pain management and the JCAHO's pain standards: an institutional challenge

Unrelieved pain is a major medical problem. In response to this problem, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) launched new standards for pain management in 1999. A review was conducted in five hospitals of 117 charts of 80 inpatients and 37 outpatients with cancer who had pain documented in their medical records to determine whether application of these JCAHO standards was documented. Pain assessment and management were not documented for most patients. Pain intensity was noted for 57% of outpatients and 53% of inpatients. When pain was documented, treatment was noted in 86% of outpatients' charts and 89% of inpatients' charts. Of those patients with documented pain, reassessment after treatment was reported in 34% of the outpatient charts and 44% of the inpatient charts. Work to properly manage cancer pain needs to continue, and the JCAHO standards provide a mechanism to evaluate practice documentation in order to improve care.     

Acute administration of alprazolam, a benzodiazepine activating GABA receptors, inhibits cortisol secretion in patients with subclinical but not overt Cushing’s syndrome

The purpose of this study is to verify whether acute pre-treatment with alprazolam (ALP), a benzodiazepine that inhibits HPA secretion in normal subjects, could better characterize patients with subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) than the 1-mg dexamethasone test (DST). In 22 patients with SCS, 10 with overt Cushing’s syndrome (CS), 11 with non-functioning adrenal incidentalomas (NF) and 14 normal subjects (NS) we studied the effect of ALP (1 mg, p.o. at 2300 hours) on cortisol levels after 1-mg DST. Cortisol levels (mean ± SEM) after DST were lower (P = 0.012) in SCS (3.9 ± 0.3 μg/dl) than in overt CS (10.4 ± 1.9 μg/dl), while they were higher (P = 0.0005) than in NF (1.1 ± 0.1 μg/dl) and NS (1.5 ± 0.1 μg/dl). After ALP pre-treatment, cortisol levels further decreased (P = 0.004) in SCS (3.0 ± 0.3 μg/dl), but neither in CS (9.3 ± 1.3 μg/dl) nor in NF (1.3 ± 0.1 μg/dl) and in NS (1.3 ± 0.1 μg/dl). In SCS, cortisol levels after ALP + 1-mg DST persisted lower (P = 0.0005) than those in CS, but higher (P = 0.0005) than those in NF and NS. Considering individual cases, ALP pre-treatment reduced cortisol levels <3 and <1.8 μg/dl in 50 and 23 % of SCS patients, respectively. ALP amplifies the cortisol inhibition exerted by 1-mg DST in patients with SCS but not in those with CS. The clinical usefulness of ALP to increase the sensitivity of 1-mg DST to identify true autonomous cortisol release in patients with adrenal incidentalomas as well as to predict different clinical outcomes remains to be clarified.     

Synthesis and automated fluorine-18 radiolabeling of new PSMA-617 derivatives with a CuAAC radiosynthetic approach

In the last decade, the development of new radiopharmaceuticals for the imaging and therapy of prostate cancer has been a highly active and important area of research, especially focusing on the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), an antigen which is upregulated in prostate, as well as in other tumor cells. A large variety of PSMA ligands have been radiolabeled, to date. Among the various derivatives, PSMA-617 resulted to be one of the most interesting in terms of interaction with the antigen and clinical properties, and its lutetium-177 labeled version has recently been approved by regulatory agencies for therapeutic purposes. For this reasons, the radiolabeling with fluorine-18 of a PSMA-617 derivative might be of interest. Beside other methodologies to radiolabel macromolecules with fluorine-18, the “click-chemistry” approach resulted to be very useful, and the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) is considered one of most efficient and reliable. This paper proposes the synthesis of a suitable precursor for the radiolabeling with fluorine-18 of a new PSMA-617 derivative. The whole radiosynthetic procedure has been fully automated, and the final product, which proved to be stable in plasma, has been obtained with radiochemical yield and purity suitable for subsequent preclinical studies.     

佛山市院内感染的监测及其致病菌的耐药性研究

目的了解及分析本院以及本市临床细菌及真菌院内感染的特点及耐药状况,为临床提供合理使用抗生素的建议及指引,以达到减少院内感染和控制耐药率上升的目的。方法采用VITEK—AMS全自动微生物分析仪与手工K—B法相结合的方法,对本院2006年1～12月临床各类送检标本进行分离培养并检测其对多种抗生素的耐药性;采用WHONET5软件,从送检科室、标本类别、分离菌种及其对抗生素的耐药性等方面进行统计和分析,得出一系列有建设性的研究数据。结果共检测标本13391例,阳性3758例,阳性检出率28．1％,院内感染以大肠埃希菌、铜绿假单胞菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、肺炎克雷伯菌最常见;真菌亦有6．01％的检出率;院内感染主要以呼吸道、泌尿道及外科感染为主;所有检出的菌株对临床各种常用抗生素均呈不同程度的耐药性,且其多重耐药呈增加趋势。结论开展院内感染及其致病菌耐药性监测,对于合理用药、提高疗效、减缓细菌耐药率以及控制院内感染均有重要意义。     

African American Women's Experiences with Breast Cancer Screening

Purpose: To describe the experience and meaning of breast cancer screening for African American women. Breast cancer screening offers the greatest hope of reducing breast cancer mortality and improving breast cancer outcomes. Despite the proliferation of initiatives targeting African American women, they continue to be first diagnosed only when they have late-stage disease.
Design and Methods: Using hermeneutic phenomenological research methods, 23 low-and middle-income African American women were interviewed to gain an understanding of their experiences with breast cancer screening.
Findings: Participants varied in their experiences with breast cancer screening. Women spoke of a desire for a holistic approach to health that did not separate the breast from the rest of the body. This desire is indicated in the theme of minding the body, self, and spirit, along with themes of relationships and spreading the word about breast health issues.
Conclusions: Interventions for African American women should include a focus on minding the body, self, and spirit to promote breast cancer screening, and should indicate the importance of relationships and spreading the word about breast cancer screening.