Clinical efficacy and safety of venetoclax combined with multidrug chemotherapy in the treatment of 15 patients with relapsed or refractory early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia / 中华血液学杂志

Objective: To explore the efficacy and safety of Venetoclax combined with multidrug chemotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ETP-ALL) . Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 15 patients with R/R ETP-ALL who received Venetoclax combined with multidrug chemotherapy from December 2018 to February 2022. Among them, eight cases were combined with demethylated drugs, four cases were combined with demethylated drugs and HAAG chemotherapy regimen, two cases were combined with demethylated drugs and CAG regimen, and one case was combined with Cladribine. Specific usage and dosage of Venetoclax: 100 mg on day 1, 200 mg on day 2, 400 mg on day 3-28, orally; when combined with azole antifungal drugs, dosage was reduced to 100 mg/d. Results: Fifteen patients (10 males and 5 females) with R/R ETP-ALL were treated with Venetoclax and multidrug chemotherapy with a median age of 35 (12-42) years old. Of 4 refractory and 11 relapsed patients, the efficacy was evaluated on the 21th day following combined chemotherapy: the overall response rate, the complete response (CR) rate, and the CR with incomplete hematological recovery (CRi) rate were 67.7% (10/15), 60.0% (9/15), and 6.7% (1/15), respectively. For the overall study population, the 12-month overall survival (OS) rate was 60.0%, and the median OS was 17.7 months. The disease-free survival (DFS) rate of all CR patients at 12 months was 60.0%, and the median DFS did not reach. About 14 patients had Ⅲ-Ⅳ hematological toxicity, but these adverse reactions were all controllable. No adverse reaction in the nervous system and tumor lysis syndrome occurred in this study, and no adverse reaction of organs above grade Ⅲ occurred. Conclusion: Venetoclax combined with multidrug chemotherapy may be a safe and promising treatment option for patients with R/R ETP-ALL.

Two Manganese(II)-Based Hybrid Multifunctional Phase Transition Materials with Strong Photoluminescence, High Quantum Yield, and Switchable Dielectric Properties: (C6NH16)2MnBr4 and (C7NH18)2MnBr4.

Multifunctional materials have always been an attractive research area, but how to combine multiple excellent properties in one compound remains a considerable challenge. Organic-inorganic hybrid compounds are widely used in the design of such materials due to their rich properties and flexible assembly. Herein, two new manganese(II)-based organic-inorganic hybrid compounds, (C6NH16)2MnBr4 (1) and (C7NH18)2MnBr4 (2), are prepared by the solution method. Compounds 1 and 2 both emit extremely strong green light under UV excitation, with high quantum yields of 45.93 and 50.98%, respectively. In addition, reversible solid-state phase transitions and obvious switchable dielectric properties are shown at 378/366 and 361/352 K, respectively. The coexistence of the dual stimulus-response characteristics of temperature and light in compounds 1 and 2 opens a new path for exploring more multifunctional phase transition materials.

Unusual symmetry breaking in high-temperature enantiomeric ferroelectrics with large spontaneous polarization.

Chiral organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have gained extensive research interest due to their combination of chirality and the excellent optical, electrical and spin properties of perovskite materials, especially in two-dimensional hybrid perovskites. Herein, we report two-dimensional organic-inorganic perovskite enantiomeric ferroelectric [(R)-ß-MPA]2CdCl4 (1) and [(S)-ß-MPA]2CdCl4 (2) (MPA+ =methylphenethylammonium). Their mirror relationships are verified by both circular dichroism (CD) and crystal structures. At the same time, the two exhibit very similar ferroelectricity and related properties, including high Curie temperature (343 K), large spontaneous polarization (4.65 µC cm-2), and low coercive force field (13 kV cm-1). Unusually, at room temperature the crystal phase is monoclinic with the space group C2 and above the phase transition temperature it is triclinic with the space group P1, which means that the symmetry decreases with the increase of temperature. In addition, it exhibits a flexible switchable SHG response, while [(R)-ß-MPA]2CdCl4 and [(S)-ß-MPA]2CdCl4 have wide band gaps of 4.21 and 4.26 eV, respectively, mainly contributed by inorganic CdCl6 octahedra. This discovery opens a new way for the construction of two-dimensional enantiomeric molecular ferroelectrics.

Neutral 1D Perovskite-Type ABX3 Phase Transition Material with a Narrowband Emission and Semiconductor Property.

Cyclic organic amines are emerging as excellent building blocks to assemble organic-inorganic hybrid phase transition materials due to their flexible cyclic structure. Here, we have assembled a 1D organic-inorganic hybrid dielectric material C5 H6 NOPbBr3 (1) by alloying the cyclic organic amine 3-hydroxypyridine. 1 displays a remarkable switchable dielectric response induced by an order-disorder transformation of the organic moiety, this transformation behaviour is confirmed by DSC and Hirshfeld surface measurements. More interestingly, 1 has a narrowband emission (FWHM=4.64 nm) at 590 nm; FWHM is a major quality figure for narrowband photodetectors. In addition, 1 exhibits semiconducting properties with an indirect bandgap of 2.78 eV by the analysis of the UV-Vis absorption results.

Serum miR-149-5p and matrix metalloproteinase-9 predict hemorrhagic transformation after intravenous thrombolysis in patients with acute ischemic stroke / 国际脑血管病杂志

Objective:To investigate the correlation and predictive value of serum miR-149-5p and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and hemorrhagic transformation (HT) after intravenous thrombolysis in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).Methods:Patients with AIS received intravenous thrombolytic therapy in Shangqiu First People's Hospital from September 2019 to February 2022 were enrolled prospectively. They were divided into HT group and non-HT group according to whether HT occurred after intravenous thrombolysis. Serum miR-149-5p and MMP-9 were measured by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the independent risk factors for HT after thrombolysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of serum miR-149-5p, MMP-9 and their combination for HT after intravenous thrombolysis. Results:A total of 358 patients with AIS received intravenous thrombolytic therapy were enrolled, 71 of them (19.83%) developed HT. The serum MMP-9 in the HT group was significantly higher than that in the non-HT group (273.95±35.23 μg/L vs. 202.71±30.52 μg/L; t=17.062, P<0.001), while the serum miR-149-5p was significantly lower than that in the non-HT group (0.26±0.06 vs. 1.03±0.15; t=42.387, P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that atrial fibrillation (odds ratio [ OR] 2.282, 95% confidence interval [ CI] 1.731-3.008; P<0.001), time from onset to intravenous thrombolysis ( OR 2.334, 95% CI 1.458-3.735; P<0.001), miR-149-5p ( OR 1.758, 95% CI 1.142-2.705; P=0.010) and MMP-9 ( OR 1.535, 95% CI 1.106-2.129; P=0.010) were the independent risk factors for HT after intravenous thrombolysis. Serum miR-149-5p (area under the curve 0.856, 95% CI 0.803-0.909; when the optimal cut-off value was 0.741, the sensitivity was 80.3% and the specificity was 89.9%), MMP-9 (area under the curve 0.875, 95% CI 0.821-0.929; when the optimal cut-off value was 240.051 μg/L, the sensitivity was 83.1% and the specificity was 90.2%) and their combination (area under the curve 0.897, 95% CI 0.854-0.941; sensitivity 84.5% and specificity 90.6%) had better predictive value for HT after thrombolysis, and there were no significant differences in the predictive value among the three. Conclusions:After intravenous thrombolysis, the serum miR-149-5p is lower and MMP-9 is higher at admission in patients with HT in patients with AIS. Both of them and their combination have better predictive value for HT after intravenous thrombolysis.

Practical Application Strategies of Cre-LoxP Conditional Gene Knockout / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

Cre-loxP is an efficient recombination system originated from P1 phage. Its specific recombination patterns based on the locus of X-over P1 make it one of the most commonly used tools for gene editing in recent years. This paper focuses on the practical application of Cre-loxP system. Firstly, the functions and advantages of CRISPR/Cas9 system in Cre sequence insertion and loxP sequence insertion are analyzed. Then, a series of practical application problems of Cre-loxP system are described. For example, in this paper, the selection of Cre recombinase sequence in situ and safe site, the strategy of loxP sequence insertion, the identification of Cre recombinase tag protein, fluorescence identification of "ectopic" expression, primer design of PCR identification and reproductive strategy of mouse were described. At the same time, the optimization of Cre-loxP system in conditional gene knockout is introduced, such as ligand-induced Cre, promoter activated Cre, photo-induced Cre and activity modification of Cre. Through these optimized applications, we can obtain time-controlled conditional gene knockout, regulate the activity of Cre recombinase, and even avoid the toxicity of Cre recombinase itself. Finally, this paper discusses the defects and challenges of Cre-loxP system, and looks into the future development direction of Cre-loxP system. In summary, this paper reviews the practical application of gene knockout based on Cre-loxP system, summarizes the latest research progress and optimization strategies of Cre-loxP system, and prospects the future gene editing based on Cre-loxP system. This paper aims to provide theoretical guidance for solving practical operation problems based on Cre-loxP system, and to provide new research ideas for more accurate, more controllable and more adaptive gene editing in the future.

Illness perception and self-management in patients with lung cancer: the mediating role of patient activation / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective:To explore the relationship among illness perception, patient activation and self-management in patients with lung cancer, and to investigate the mediating effect of patient activation between illness perception and self-management.Methods:A total of 270 inpatients with lung cancer were selected by convenience sampling method.They were investigated by self-made social demographic questionnaire, brief illness perception questionnaire(BIPQ), patient activation measure(PAM13)and cancer patient self-management scale.SPSS 26.0 software was used for data analysis.T-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and mediating effect test were used for statistical analysis.Results:A total of 255 questionnaires were collected effectively.The total score of illness perception, patient activation and self-management in patients with lung cancer were (41.91±7.94), (62.31±16.39)and (142.20±20.59) .The total score of illness perception of lung cancer patients was significantly negatively correlated with the total score of patient activation and patient self-management( r=-0.652, P<0.01; r=-0.762, P<0.01), and the total score of patient activation was significantly positively correlated with the total score of self-management in patients with lung cancer( r=0.746, P<0.01). Patient activation had a partial mediating effect between illness perception and self-management in patients with lung cancer, and the mediating effect accounted for 37.10% of the total effect. Conclusion:Patient activation plays a partial mediating role between illness perception and self-management in lung cancer patients, and it is an important protective factor for patients to actively participate in self-management of disease.On the basis of assessing the illness perception and patient activation of lung cancer patients, medical staff can timely correct the negative illness perception and help them establish and maintain a high positivity level to improve their self-management.

Translation and reliability and validity of the development of a delirium knowledge test for intensive care nurses / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective:This study aimed to translate the development of a delirium knowledge test for intensive care nurses (DKT-ICN) and test its reliability and validity.Methods:The DKT-ICN was translated and adapted according to Chinese culture following the translation, back translation and culture adaptation of DKT-ICN using Brislin′s translation model. The Chinese version of DKT-ICN was tested among 316 nurses conveniently sampled in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from September to December 2021, the reliability and validity of the scale were evaluated by cross-sectional survey method.Results:The scale-content validity index was 0.98, and the item-content validity index ranged from 0.83 to 1.00, the Cronbach′s α for the total scale was 0.884, and the Cronbach′s α for five dimensions ranged from 0.608 to 0.679. The test-retest reliability was 0.753 for the overall scale, and 0.880-0.978 for each domain.Conclusion:The Chinese version of DKT-ICN has acceptable reliability and validity. The DKT-ICN is a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating the knowledge level of ICU nurses in China.

Coefficient of variation of heart rate and blood pressure in rapid identification of children with suspected orthostatic intolerance / 中华儿科杂志

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of coefficient of variation of heart rate and blood pressure in rapid identification of children with suspected orthostatic intolerance(OI). Methods: This was a retrospective study. The medical records of 379 children with OI were collected, who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University from January 2015 to January 2020. Another 20 out-patient children without syncope or syncope aura were selected as control. According to the results of standing test and head-up tilt test (HUTT), all the patients with OI were divided into the following 4 groups: vasovagal syncope (VVS) group, postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) group, POTS combined with VVS (POTS+VVS) group and HUTT negative group. Then, coefficient of variation of systolic pressure (SBPCV), coefficient of variation of diastolic pressure (DBPCV) and coefficient of variation of heart rate (HRCV) in standing test and HUTT were calculated. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for comparison among the five groups, and Dunnett's T3 method for comparison between two groups. Paired t test was used to compare the coefficient of variation between supine and erect position and tilt position in each group. The predictive values of HRCV,SBPCV and DBPCV for negative HUTT were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Among the 379 children, there were 79 in HUTT negative group, 208 in VVS group, 52 in POTS group, and 40 in POTS+VVS group. The SBPCV of supine-erect position of the control group, HUTT negative group, VVS group, POTS group, POTS+VVS group were (3.8±1.0)%, (5.3±2.2)%, (6.6±3.4)%, (5.9±3.6)%, (6.9±2.8)%, respectively. Similarly, the SBPCV of supine, erect and head-up tilt position were (4.5±0.8)%, (6.0±1.9)%, (7.1±2.6)%, (6.0±2.1)%, (7.3±2.5)%; the DBPCV of supine-erect position were (7.3±1.2)%, (9.1±3.7)%, (9.1±4.9)%, (9.1±4.8)%, (11.6±4.6)%; the DBPCV of supine, erect and tilt position were (7.4±1.1)%, (9.4±2.9)%, (10.1±3.8)%, (9.2±3.3)%, (11.0±4.7)%; the HRCV of supine-erect position were (7.6±2.6)%, (12.9±3.7)%, (16.2±4.3)%, (21.2±5.9)%, (24.9±5.3)%; and the HRCV of supine, erect and tilt position were (8.1±1.6)%, (10.1±2.7)%, (14.1±4.3)%, (15.6±3.7)%, (18.9±4.0)%, respectively. All the indexes showed significant differences among the five groups (χ2=21.91, 25.47, 19.82, 14.65, 104.52, 92.51, all P<0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that when the SBPCV and HRCV of supine-erect position reached 4.4% and 10.5%, the area under the curve of ROC were 0.713 and 0.877, the sensitivity of predicting negative HUTT were 58.2% and 78.5%, and the specificity were 80.0% and 95.0%, respectively. Conclusions: Coefficient of variation of heart rate and blood pressure may serve as potential diagnostic indexes in evaluating autonomic function of OI patients. SBPCV ≥ 4.4% or HRCV ≥ 10.5% of supine-erect position could be an indication of HUTT.

High-Temperature Phase Transition Containing Switchable Dielectric Behavior, Long Fluorescence Lifetime, and Distinct Photoluminescence Changes in a 2D Hybrid CuBr4 Perovskite.

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite crystal, [ClC6H4(CH2)2NH3]2CuBr4 (1), having experienced an invertible high-temperature phase transition near Tc (the Curie temperature Tc = 355 K), has been successfully synthesized. The phase-transition characteristics for compound 1 are thoroughly revealed by specific heat capacity (Cp), differential thermal analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry tests, possessing 16 K broad thermal hysteresis. Multiple-temperature powder X-ray diffraction analysis further proves the phase-transition behavior of compound 1. Moreover, compound 1 exhibits a significant steplike dielectric response near Tc, revealing that it can be deemed to be a promising dielectric switching material. The variable-temperature fluorescence experiments show distinct photoluminescence (PL) changes of compound 1. Further investigation and calculation disclose that the fluorescence lifetime of compound 1 can reach as long as 55.46 µs, indicating that it can be a potential PL material. All of these researches contribute a substitutable avenue in the design and construction of neoteric phase-transition compounds combining high Curie temperature and PL properties.

Broad neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants by an inhalable bispecific single-domain antibody

The effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutic antibodies has been limited by the continuous emergence of viral variants, and by the restricted diffusion of antibodies from circulation into the sites of respiratory virus infection. Here, we report the identification of two highly conserved regions on Omicron variant RBD recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies. Based on this finding, we generated a bispecific single-domain antibody that was able to simultaneously and synergistically bind these two regions on a single Omicron variant RBD as revealed by Cryo-EM structures. This inhalable antibody exhibited exquisite neutralization breadth and therapeutic efficacy in mouse models of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The structures also deciphered an uncommon cryptic epitope within the spike trimeric interface that may have implications for the design of broadly protective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutics.

A multifunctional molecular ferroelectric with chiral features, a high Curie temperature, large spontaneous polarization and photoluminescence: (C9H14N)2CdBr4.

Low-dimensional chiral organic-inorganic hybrid metal halides have attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to their unique intrinsic properties, including having potential applications in optoelectronic and spintronic devices. However, low-dimensional chiral molecular ferroelectrics are very rare. In this paper, we report a novel zero-dimensional molecular ferroelectric (C9H14N)2CdBr4 (C9H14N+ = protonated 3-phenylpropylamine), which has obvious dielectric and thermal anomalies and shows a high Curie temperature at 395 K. It crystallizes in the P21 space group at room temperature, showing a strong CD signal, large spontaneous polarization (P s = 13.5 µC cm-2), and a clear ferroelectric domain. In addition, it also exhibits a flexible SHG response. The photoluminescence spectrum shows that 1 has broadband luminescence. At the same time, compound 1 has a wide band gap, which is mainly contributed to by the inorganic CdBr4 tetrahedron. The high tunability of low-dimensional chiral molecular ferroelectrics also opens up a way to explore multifunctional chiral materials.

Ferroelectric properties, narrow band gap and ultra-large reversible entropy change in a novel nonlinear ionic chromium(VI) compound.

A novel chromium(VI)-based compound, [(CH3CH2)3N(CH2Cl)][CrO3Cl] (1), undergoes a high-temperature phase transition at around 340.9 K, accompanied by an ultra-large entropy change of 63.49 J mol-1 K-1. Compound 1 exhibits a moderate ferroelectric polarization of 0.48 µC cm-2 and a remarkable CD signal. Strikingly, 1 occupies a narrow band gap of 2.22 eV, which is chiefly attributed to the inorganic [CrO3Cl]- tetrahedron. It is believed that these findings will contribute to an alternative pathway for the design of multifunctional ferroelectric materials, whose potential applications will be in semiconductors, energy storage, etc.

A Narrow Bandgap of 2D Ruddlesden-Popper Bilayer Perovskite with Giant Entropy Change and Photoluminescence.

The multifunctional two-dimensional (2D) organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have potential applications in many fields, such as, semiconductor, energy storage and fluorescent device etc. Here, a 2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite (IPA)2 (FA)Pb2 I7 (1, IPA+ =C3 H9 NI+ , FA+ =CN2 H5 + ) is determined for its photophysical properties. Strikingly, 1 reveals a solid reversible phase transition with Tc of 382 K accompanied by giant entropy change of 40 J mol-1 K-1 . Further optical investigations indicate that 1 reveals a narrow direct bandgap (2.024 eV) attributed to the slight bending of I-Pb-I edge and inorganic [Pb2 I7 ]n layer and a superior photoluminescence (PL) emission with super long lifetime of 0.1607 ms. It is believed that this work will pave an avenue to further design multifunctional semiconductors that combines energy storage and photoelectric materials.

High-Temperature and Large-Polarization Ferroelectric with Second Harmonic Generation Response in a Novel Crown Ether Clathrate.

Molecular ferroelectrics of high-temperature reversible phase transitions are very rare and have attracted increasing attention in recent years. In this paper is described the successful synthesis of a novel high-temperature host-guest inclusion ferroelectric: [(C6 H5 NF3 )(18-crown-6)][BF4 ] (1) that shows a pair of reversible peaks at 348 K (heating) and 331 K (cooling) with a heat hysteresis about 17 K by differential scanning calorimetry measurements, thus indicating that 1 undergoes a reversible structural phase transition. Variable-temperature PXRD and temperature-dependent dielectric measurements further prove the phase-transition behavior of 1. The second harmonic response demonstrates that 1 belongs to a non-centrosymmetric space group at room temperature and is a good nonlinear optical material. In its semiconducting properties, 1 shows a wide optical band gap of about 4.43 eV that comes chiefly from the C, H and O atoms of the crystals. In particular, the ferroelectric measurements of 1 exhibit a typical polarization-electric hysteresis loop with a large spontaneous polarization (Ps ) of about 4.06 µC/cm2 . This finding offers an alternative pathway for designing new ferroelectric-dielectric and nonlinear optical materials and related physical properties in organic-inorganic and other hybrid crystals.

Coupling Narrow Band Gap and Switchable SHG Responses in a New Molecule Ferroelectric: Imidazolyl Propylamine Pentabromo Stibium(III).

Due to the existence of some cross properties such as SHG (second-harmonic generation), ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, and thermoelectricity, molecular ferroelectrics have been widely used as a composite multipurpose material. Particularly, organic-inorganic molecular ferroelectrics have received much interest recently because of their unique flexible structures, friendly environment, ease of synthesis, etc. Also, these hybrids show great flexibility in band-gap engineering. Here we report a new molecular halide, [C6H13N3SbBr5]n (1; C6H13N3 = 1-(3-aminopropyl)imidazole), which experiences a unique ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition at around 230 K from space group P21 to P21/c. Significantly, compound 1 exhibits a narrow band gap with a value of 2.52 eV, large pronounced SHG-active, perfect rectangle hysteresis loops with a large spontaneous polarization of 6.86 µC/cm2. DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and dielectric dependence on temperature tests and the volume change before and after the phase transition show that compound 1 is characterized by a second-order phase transition. These findings will contribute to the multifunctional materials field of organic-inorganic hybrids.

Self-perceived burden and its associations with health-related quality of life among urologic cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the prevalence of self-perceived burden (SPB) and its association with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among urologic cancer patients. METHODS: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study. A total of 429 respondents diagnosed with urologic cancers (prostate, bladder and renal cancer) from Sarawak General Hospital and Subang Jaya Medical Centre in Malaysia were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire. SPB and HRQoL were measured by the Self-perceived Burden Scale and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General 7 Item Scale respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Self-perceived burden was experienced by 73.2% of the respondents. Respondents who had a lower education level, a monthly household income

Fully human single-domain antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading rapidly, highlighting the urgent need for an efficient approach to rapidly develop therapeutics and prophylactics against SARS-CoV-2. We describe here the development of a phage-displayed single-domain antibody library by grafting naive CDRs into framework regions of an identified human germline IGHV allele. This enabled the isolation of high-affinity single-domain antibodies of fully human origin. The panning using SARS-CoV-2 RBD and S1 as antigens resulted in the identification of antibodies targeting five types of neutralizing or non-neutralizing epitopes on SARS-CoV-2 RBD. These fully human single-domain antibodies bound specifically to SARS-CoV-2 RBD with subnanomolar to low nanomolar affinities. Some of them were found to potently neutralize pseudotyped and live virus, and therefore may represent promising candidates for prophylaxis and therapy of COVID-19. This study also reports unique immunogenic profile of SARS-CoV-2 RBD compared to that of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which may have important implications for the development of effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

A simple and rapid method for the determination of lead dioxide in minium by headspace gas chromatographic technique.

This paper demonstrated a simple and rapid approach for the determination of lead dioxide in minium using a headspace gas chromatographic (GC) technique. This new approach was based on the measurement of carbon dioxide from the redox reaction between lead dioxide and oxalic acid in a sealed headspace vial. The obtained results indicated that the new approach had good measurement accuracy (relative errors ≤8.71%) and precision (RSD ≤2.86%). Moreover, the limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for this new approach were respectively 0.34% and 0.10%, and the recoveries ranged from 97.9 to 101.7%. The new approach is low-cost and reliable, which has potential for use in the analysis of lead dioxide in minium and related products.

Financial toxicity and its associations with health-related quality of life among urologic cancer patients in an upper middle-income country.

PURPOSE: This study examined the prevalence of financial toxicity (FT) and associated factors among urologic cancer patients. The association between FT and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was also investigated. METHODS: A total of 429 respondents diagnosed with urologic cancers (prostate cancer, bladder and renal cancer) from Sarawak General Hospital and Subang Jaya Medical Centre in Malaysia were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Objective and subjective FT were measured by catastrophic health expenditure (healthcare-cost-to-income ratio greater than 40%) and the Personal Financial Well-being Scale, respectively. HRQoL was measured with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General 7 Items scale. RESULTS: Objective and subjective FT were experienced by 16.1 and 47.3% of the respondents, respectively. Respondents who sought treatment at a private hospital and had out-of-pocket health expenditures were more likely to experience objective FT, after adjustment for covariates. Respondents who were female and had a monthly household income less than MYR 5000 were more likely to experience average to high subjective FT. Greater objective FT (OR = 2.75, 95% CI 1.09-6.95) and subjective FT (OR = 4.68, 95% CI 2.63-8.30) were associated with poor HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS: The significant association between both objective and subjective FT and HRQoL highlights the importance of reducing FT among urologic cancer patients. Subjective FT was found to have a greater negative impact on HRQoL.