Quality of life and death anxiety among caregivers of patients with advanced cancer: the mediating effect of trait anxious personality and the moderating effect of social support.

PURPOSE: To explore the mediating role of trait anxious personality in the association between quality of life (QoL) and death anxiety (DA), as well as to test the moderating effect of social support in the mediation model. METHODS: The Death Anxiety Scale, Quality of Life Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and Social Support Rating Scale were used to measure 588 family caregivers of advanced cancer patients. We then constructed a moderated mediation model. RESULTS: The presence of QoL was negatively associated with DA (ß = - 0.67, p < 0.01). Trait anxious personality partially mediated the relationship between QoL and DA (indirect effect ß = - 0.08, p < 0.01). Social support moderated both the antecedent and subsequent segments of the mediating paths of "QoL → trait anxious personality → DA" and the direct relationship between QoL and DA. Among caregivers with a low level of social support, the mediating effect coefficient of trait anxious personality was higher at 0.25 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.059-0.182), in contrast to caregivers with a high level of social support, where the mediating effect coefficient of trait anxious personality was 0.11 (95% CI: 0.029-0.072). CONCLUSION: QoL is directly associated with an increased risk of DA and indirectly related to DA by increasing the risk of trait anxious personality among caregivers. Social support can moderate the mediating effect of trait anxious personality and the relationship between QoL and DA. The intervention strategy for preventing DA among caregivers who have encountered QoL reduction should focus on reducing trait anxious personality and social support.

Death anxiety among caregivers of patients with advanced cancer: a cross-sectional survey.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate death anxiety (DA) in caregivers of patients with advanced cancer and identify associated factors in the context of Chinese culture. METHODS: Caregivers (N = 588) of advanced cancer patients in a tertiary cancer hospital completed anonymous questionnaire surveys. Measures included the Chinese version of the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (C-T-DAS), the Quality-of-Life Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and the Social Support Rating Scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation test, and linear regression. RESULTS: Respondents returned 588 (93.03%) of the 632 questionnaires. The total C-T-DAS score was 7.92 ± 2.68 points. The top-scoring dimension was "Stress and pain" (3.19 ± 1.29 points), followed by "Emotion" (2.28 ± 1.31 points) and "Cognition" (1.40 ± 0.94 points). In contrast, the lowest-scoring dimension was "Time" (1.06 ± 0.77 points). Factors associated with DA (R2 = 0.274, F = 13.348, p < 0.001) included quality of life (QoL), trait anxious personality, social support, caregiver length of care, caregiver gender, and patients' level of activities of daily living (ADL). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated high levels of DA in caregivers of patients with advanced cancer. Generally, female caregivers and those with low social support had high DA. Caregivers caring for patients with low ADL levels or with a low QoL and trait anxious personality reported high DA. Certain associated factors help to reduce caregivers DA. Social interventions are recommended to improve the end-of-life transition and trait anxious personality as well as quality of life for caregivers.

Evaluation of clinical application of salvianolate for injection / 中国基层医药

Objective:To investigate the clinical application of salvianolate for injection in Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province and evaluate its rationality of injection.Methods:From March 2018 to November 2018, 560 patients treated with salvianolate for injection in Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province were selected by random sampling method.The indications, usage and dosage, route of administration, choice of vehicle, concentration of vehicle, course of treatment, compatibility, contraindications and adverse reactions of salvianolate for injection were analyzed retrospectively.Results:Totally 560 inpatients received salvianolate for injection were collected, about 26.96%(151/560) was consistent with the indication, 99.82%(559/560) with a correct administration dosage and frequency, 100.00%(560/560) with right administration route, 95.00%(532/560) with a right solvent selection, 67.86%(380/560) with correct solvent concentration, 61.07%(342/560) with a correct treatment course, 100.00%(560/560) with a right medicine combination, about 94.46%(529/560) was consistent with coagulation function contraindication, about 90.18%(505/560) was consistent with liver function contraindication.The incidence of adverse reactions was 1.61%(9/560).Conclusion:In the clinical application of salvianolate for injection, a high rate of unreasonable usage is found in indication, treatment course and solvent selection.Because of the serious problems in the use of salvianolate injection, it should be used strictly to ensure clinical medication safety.

Detail repair technique for alar deformity after the first stage reconstruction of alar defect / 中华整形外科杂志

Objective@#To sum up the repair techniques of secondary alar deformity after the first phase reconstruction of alar defect.@*Methods@#From January 2010 to December 2017, 17 patients with secondary alar deformity were included. Secondary alar deformities after the first stage reconstruction of alar defect included the abnormalities of alar groove line, absence of alar-cheek groove and the notch of alar rim. Z-plasty, V-Y advanced flaps, local skin flap and other technologies were introduced to repair details.@*Results@#Infection was found in one case of the reconstruction of the alar-cheek groove and the wound was healed by treatment. There was no necrosis occurred in other flap. The shape of the alar was satisfactory and the anterior nostril was not narrow. Patients were followed up for 1 month to 1 year. The average follow-up time was 5 months. No recurrence of nasal alar tumor was found. The patients were satisfied with the appearance.@*Conclusions@#The symmetrical and satisfactory nasal shape can be obtained with local flaps such as Z-plasty, V-Y advancement of flaps for secondary alar deformities.

A study of the frequencies of HLA-DQA1 alleles and their clinical application values in the donor-recipient HLA-10/10 matched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective To analyze the frequencies of HLA-DQA1 alleles and their clinical values in the donor-recipient HLA-A,-B,-C,-DRB1,-DQB1 (10/10) matched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).Methods This study recruited 127 patients who received allogeneic HSCT and 127 unrelated donors.High-resolution (High Res) DNA typing for HLA-DQA1 alleles were performed on the 254 subjects by using sequence specific oligonucleotide probes (SSOP) and high resolution of sequence specific primer(High Res SSP).Results The DQA1 allele genotypes of 36 pairs of donor-recipient were directly identified by using SSOP.The ambiguous DQA1 allele genotypes of the rest 91 pairs were identified by using High Res SSP.Among the 127 pairs of donor-recipient,5 pairs were HLA-DQA1 alleles mismatched,while the others were all matched.No significant differences in the distribution of HLA-DQA1 alleles were observed between the donors and the recipients.Sixteen HLA-DQA1 alleles were detected in the 127 donors,which were DQA1 * 02 ∶ 01 (19.3％),DQA1* 01 ∶ 02(19.3％),DQA1 * 03 ∶ 02/03 (17.0％),DQA1 *01∶03 (9.8％),DQA1*06∶01(9.1％),DQA1*05∶ 01(7.1％),DQA1*05∶05(5.9％),DQA1*03∶01 (4.7％),DQA1*01 ∶04(2.4％),DQA1*01∶05(2.0％),DQA1*01∶01(1.2％),DQA1*05 ∶ 03(0.8％),DQA1 *05 ∶ 08(0.8％),DQA1*04 ∶ 01(0.4％),DQA1*05 ∶ 06(0.4％) from high to low frequency.Moreover,a new allele was detected in the patients.The haplotypes' frequencies and linkage disequilibrium(LD) analysis of HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 showed that the most common haplotype was DQA1 *02 ∶ 01-DQB1 *02 ∶ 02(16.1％),followed by DQA1 *03 ∶ 02/03-DQB1 *03 ∶ 03 (11.8％)and DQA1 *01 ∶ 03-DQB1 * 06 ∶ 01 (9.1％).Stronger LD were observed between DQA1 * 02 ∶ 01 and DQB1*02 ∶ 02,DQA1 *03 ∶ 02 and DQB1*03 ∶ 03,DQA1 *01 ∶ 03 and DQB1*06 ∶ 01,HLA-DQA1*06∶01 andDQB1*03 ∶ 01,DQA1*05 ∶ 01 and DQB1*02 ∶ 02(P＜0.001).Conclusion There was strong linkage disequilibrium between HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 genes.The polymorphism of HLA-DQA1 gene was less than that of HLA-DQB1 gene.No more guidance was provided to donor selection in unrelated donor-recipient HLA matched HSCT by adding HLA-DQA1 genotyping,but it might have clinical application values in HSCT with HLA Ⅱ locus mismatched donor and recipient.

Simultaneous characterization of two types of major active components in Kushen by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to multi-stage mass spectrometry / 中国中药杂志

In this study, a high performance liquid chromatography coupled with multi-stage mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous characterization of alkaloids and flavonoids, the main active components, in Kushen with diverse physical and chemical properties. Forty-two major constituents, including sixteen Kushen alkaloids and twenty-six Kushen flavonoids were tentatively identified. Additionally, useful and characteristic fragmentation pathways of two types of Kushen alkaloids, namely cytisine-type and sparteine-type, in positive ions mode were proposed and summarized, which would lay a foundation for the rapid identification of the active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine Kushen.

Construction of co-expression SHMT and TPase recombinant vector and dual-enzymatic synthesis of L-tryptophan / 生物工程学报

Hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) and tryptophanase (TPase) are key enzymes in biosynthesis of L-tryptophan. We constructed three recombinant plasmids, including pET-SHMT, pET-TPase, and pET-ST for over-expression or co-expression of SHMT and TPase in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the recombinant proteins of 47 kDa and 50 kDa were expressed of pET-SHMT and pET-TPase, respectively. As compared to the host stain, the enzyme activity of SHMT and TPase was increased by 6.4 and 8.4 folds, respectively. Co-expression of both recombinant proteins, 47 kDa and 50 kDa, was also successful by using pET-ST and the enzyme activities were enhanced by 6.1 and 6.9 folds. We designed two pathways of dual-enzymatic synthesis of L-tryptophan by using these recombinant strains as source of SHMT and TPase. In the first pathway, the pET-SHMT carrying strain was used to catalyze synthesis of L-serine, which was further transformed into L-tryptophan by the pET-TPase expressing strain. These two steps sequentially took place in different bioreactors. In the second pathway, the pET-ST carrying strain, in which two enzymes were co-expressed, was used to catalyze simultaneously two steps in a single bioreactor. HPLC analysis indicated a high yield of 41.5 g/L of L-tryptophan was achieved in the first pathway, while a lower yield of 28.9 g/L was observed in the second pathway. In the first pathway, the calculated conversion rates for L-glycine and indole were 83.3% and 92.5%, respectively. In the second pathway, a comparable conversion rate, 82.7%, was achieved for L-glycine, while conversion of indole was much lower, only 82.9%.