Benefit of a Palliative Care Drug Information Service and User Experience: A Cross-sectional Study Using a Web-based Online Survey.

A specialized drug information service can assist professionals in collating relevant information and hereby help to increase medication safety. It is only helpful if the information provided can also be put into practice, though. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of a specialized palliative care drug information service AMInfoPall and its users' experience. A web-based survey among health care professionals subsequent to inquiry between 07/2017 and 06/2018 was conducted. Twenty questions related to the use and transfer of received information into clinical practice and the result of the consecutive treatment. Invitations to participate/ reminders were sent out 8 and 11 days after receiving the requested information. The survey's response rate was 119/176 (68%). Most participants were physicians (54%), followed by pharmacists (34%) and nurses (10%), 33/119 (28%) worked in palliative home care teams, 29 (24%) on palliative care units, and 27 (23%) in retail pharmacies. 86/99 respondents had conducted an unsatisfiable literature search before contacting AMInfoPall. 113/119 (95%) were satisfied with the provided answer. Information was transferred into clinical practice as recommended in 65/119 (55%) cases and led to a change in patient status in 33%, mostly improvement. No change was reported in 31% and in 36% it was unclear. AMInfoPall was well accepted and mostly used by physicians and palliative home care services. It provided helpful support for decision-making. The obtained information was mostly well transferable into practice.

Orthonasal and retronasal detection thresholds of 26 aroma compounds in a model alcohol-free beer: Effect of threshold calculation method.

Detection thresholds are used routinely to determine the odour-active compounds in foods. The composition of a food matrix, such as hydrophobicity or solids content, has an impact on the release of flavour compounds, and thus on thresholds. In the case of beer, thresholds determined in alcoholic beer may not be the same for alcohol-free beer (AFB). Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine detection thresholds for aroma compounds typically found in beer, within a model AFB. The model was designed to match the sugar concentration and pH of an AFB brewed by a cold contact process. Thresholds were measured using a 3-AFC procedure and calculated using either Best Estimate Threshold (BET) method or by logistic regression. Moreover, an algorithm for the removal of false positives was applied to adjust the assessors' raw responses. Retronasal thresholds were generally lower than orthonasal. Those calculated by BET were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those from logistic regression, and removal of false positives also produced significantly higher thresholds than those from raw data. The use of logistic regression has the advantage of providing the mathematical model describing the behaviour of the group. The results from this study can be used to better understand the role of flavour compounds in AFB and the effect of the calculation method to prevent under- or overestimated results.

A zwitterionic hydrocarbon-soluble borenium ion based on a ß-diketiminate backbone.

A versatile synthetic route has been developed to access strongly Lewis acidic borenium cations (and heavier group 13 analogues) featuring a pendant weakly-coordinating borate function. The hydrocarbon-soluble borenium/borate zwitterion is more strongly Lewis acidic than B(C6F5)3, despite featuring a pendant (non-fluorinated) aryl group and two flanking N-donors.

[The obesity paradox]. / Le paradoxe de l'obésité.

In general population, cardiovascular (CV) mortality increases in parallel with obesity severity, determined by body mass index (BMI). However in cohorts of patients with coronary diseases or heart failure a decrease of the global mortality has been observed in patients aged more than 65 years old with moderate obesity (BMI = 30-35) compared to normal weight people (BMI = 20-25) and morbid obese (BMI > 35). This "obesity paradox" could result from the selection of obese people with healthy metabolic profile and way of life. BMI does not allow to distinguish lean body mass from fat mass and therefore to evaluate abdominal obesity which is associated with metabolic syndrome and CV risk.

Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of pathogen-associated molecular patterns for cancer immunotherapy.

The delivery of stimulatory signals to dendritic cells (DCs) in the tumor microenvironment could be an effective means to break tumor-induced tolerance. The work presented here evaluates the immunostimulatory properties of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), microbial molecules which bind Toll-like receptors and deliver activating signals to immune cells, when expressed in tumor cells using adenoviral (Ad) vectors. In vitro, transduction of A549 tumor cells with Ad vectors expressing either flagellin from Listeria monocytogenes or P40 protein from Klebsiella pneumoniae induced the maturation of human monocyte-derived DCs in co-cultures. In mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLRs), Ad-flagellin and Ad-P40 transduction of tumor cells stimulated lymphocyte proliferation and the secretion of IFN-gamma. In vivo, these vectors were used either as stand-alone immunoadjuvants injected intratumorally or as vaccine adjuvants combined with a tumor antigen-expressing vector. When Ad-PAMPs were administered intratumorally to mice bearing subcutaneous syngeneic B16F0-CAR (cocksackie-adenovirus receptor) melanomas, tumor progression was transiently inhibited by Ad-P40. In a therapeutic vaccine setting, the combination of Ad-MUC1 and Ad-PAMP vectors injected subcutaneously delayed the growth of implanted RenCa-MUC1 tumors and improved tumor rejection when compared with vaccination with Ad-MUC1 alone. These results suggest that Ad-PAMPs could be effective immunoadjuvants for cancer immunotherapy.

[Quality of medical records in oncology: results of an audit of the Lyon Civil Hospices]. / Qualité des dossiers de cancérologie: résultats d'une démarche qualité aux hospices civils de Lyon.

The objective of this study was to assess the quality of information contained in the medical files of patients in an oncology unit of the Lyons Civil Hospices. Prior to the audit, the health care teams established a set of consensus standards to compare with observed procedures. The analysis of the results led to propositions for guidelines designed to improve points where significant deviations were observed. In the first audit, 80 medical files from patients cared for in four oncology units were retrospectively analysed to determine information quality. Seven items of this audit were retained for a second audit on 127 medical files of patients in a cancerology unit; those items were: postal code of birth place, weight, codified evaluation of general status, TNM classification, pTNM classification, presence of pathology report, localisation of metastasis. Significant deviations were observed for pTNM classification and postal code of birth. During the second audit, a manual of procedures was distributed in the unit, and a new evaluation will be done in one year to assess the impact of guidelines.