Validation of the Palliative Prognostic Index, Performance Status-Based Palliative Prognostic Index and Chinese Prognostic Scale in a home palliative care setting for patients with advanced cancer in China.

BACKGROUND: The predictive value of the prognostic tool for patients with advanced cancer is uncertain in mainland China, especially in the home-based palliative care (HPC) setting. This study aimed to compare the accuracy of the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI), the Performance Status-Based Palliative Prognostic Index (PS-PPI), and the Chinese Prognosis Scale (ChPS) for patients with advanced cancer in the HPC setting in mainland China. METHODS: Patients with advanced cancer admitted to the hospice center of Yuebei People's Hospital between January 2014 and December 2018 were retrospectively calculated the scores according to the three prognostic tools. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare survival times among different risk groups. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to assess the predictive value. The accuracy of 21-, 42- and 90-day survival was compared among the three prognostic tools. RESULTS: A total of 1863 patients were included. Survival time among the risk groups of all prognostic tools was significantly different from each other except for the PPI. The AUROC of the ChPS was significantly higher than that of the PPI and PS-PPI for 7-, 14, 21-, 42-, 90-, 120-, 150- and 180-day survival (P < 0.05). The AUROC of the PPI and PS-PPI were not significantly different from each other (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The ChPS is more suitable than the PPI and PS-PPI for advanced cancer patients in the HPC setting. More researches are needed to verify the predictive value of the ChPS, PPI, and PS-PPI in the HPC setting in the future.

Constructing and measuring domain-specific emotions for affective design: a descriptive approach to deal with individual differences.

Assessing design solutions via domain-specific emotions has been widely concerned and explored in the field of affective design. However, the examination and accommodation of individual differences have not been settled sufficiently in the literature. To address this research gap, this paper proposes a descriptive approach to draw calibrated collective emotion patterns in survey-based affective design assessment. A 'Repertory Grid Interview linked with Rate-All-That-Apply' (RGI/RATA) procedure is firstly conducted to elicit and code the individual's personal emotional descriptions into mid-level Emotion Words (EWs) and to gather emotion data grids with each grid quantified by an individual's own EWs. The obtained individualised emotion data grids are then subjected to Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) to extract collective emotional space, thus to enable conceptualising collective emotional dimensions and measuring calibrated collective responses. A case study demonstrating the implementation process for a simple project of appearance design assessment is also presented. Practitioner Summary: The proposed methodology may help a design team to investigate the shared patterns of domain-specific emotions through a single assessment survey. With the provided post hoc analysis tools, designers may also evaluate multi-level individual differences (e.g. regarding user groups or even intra-individual) quantitatively and at a low cost. Abbreviations: EWs: emotion words; HF/E: human factors and ergonomics; IEA: International Ergonomics Association; MFA: multiple factor analysis; PCT: personal construct theory; PCA: principal component analysis; RGI/RATA: repertory grid interview linked with rate-all-that-apply; RGI: repertory grid interview; RATA: rate-all-that-apply; SD: standard deviation; USB: universal serial bus.

The association between reduced folate carrier-1 gene 80G/A polymorphism and methotrexate efficacy or methotrexate related-toxicity in rheumatoid arthritis: A meta-analysis.

Methotrexate (MTX), the most commonly used anti-rheumatic drug against RA, enters the cell via the action of the reduced folate carrier 1(RFC1). A major polymorphism of the RFC1 gene, 80G/A, has been reported to influence the activity of RFC1, resulting in variable intracellular MTX-polyglutamate (MTX-PG) levels. However, the association studies addressing the RFC1 80G/A polymorphism and MTX efficacy or toxicity in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has yielded conflicting results. In the present meta-analysis, we aimed to evaluate the association between the RFC1 80G/A polymorphism and MTX efficacy or toxicity in RA patients. A total 17 studies met our inclusion criteria. Among them, 12 studies with 2049 subjects reported the association between the RFC1 80G/A and MTX response, and 12 studies involving 2627 subjects were on MTX-related toxicity. Meta-analysis revealed significant association between RFC1 80G/A polymorphism and MTX efficacy (odds ratio (OR) for the A allele=1.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05-1.67, P=0.02; for AA genotype: OR=1.49, 95%CI 1.17-1.907, P=0.001). However, no association could be detected in the analysis of MTX-related toxicity. Stratification by ethnic population also indicated an association between this polymorphism and MTX efficacy in Asian group (P=0.002 for A allele; P=0.003 for AA genotype), but not in the Caucasian group (P=0.15 for A allele; P=0.05 for AA genotype). In both Asian and Caucasian sub-groups, no influence of the RFC1 80G/A polymorphism on MTX toxicity can be detected. In conclusion, the RFC1 G80A polymorphism is associated with responsiveness to MTX therapy, but may not be associated with MTX toxicity in RA patients.