Purpose
Adverse oral symptoms gradually appear in advanced cancer patients as the disease progresses. We retrospectively investigated the associations between the incidence of oral problems and the ...days to death (DTD) in patients receiving palliative care.
Methods
The dental assessment sheets and medical charts of 105 patients who had been admitted into the palliative care unit at our hospital were examined. Case data included evaluations of organic and functional oral conditions at the time of admission for all patients. The cohort was divided into two groups according to the DTD as the short group (<28 days from the time of dental assessment until death) and the long group (≥28 days). We compared the incidences of organic and functional oral problems between these groups.
Results
Dry mouth, tongue inflammation, and bleeding spots were significantly more frequent in the short group than in the long group (78 vs. 54 % for dry mouth, 67 vs. 46 % for tongue inflammation, 35 vs. 14 % for bleeding spots, respectively;
p
< 0.05). Tongue coating and candidiasis were comparable between the two groups. Dysphagia was significantly more common in the short group (43 %) than in the long group (20 %) (
p
= 0.01), as was assistance with oral health care (76 vs. 50 %) (
p
= 0.01).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that, during palliative care, oral complications appear more frequently when the DTD period is shorter. These symptoms may be useful indicators when deciding on the proper timing of intensive oral care intervention to decrease oral problems and pain in terminally ill patients.
We have observed soft X-ray spectra from highly charged ions of seven different lanthanide elements with atomic numbers ranging from 60 to 70 in laser-produced plasmas (LPPs) using CO2 and Nd:YAG ...laser systems, the wavelengths of which are 10.6μm and 1.064μm, respectively. The spectral feature drastically changes between the two types of LPPs due primarily to the difference in opacity. Narrowband quasicontinuum features arising from n=4–4 transitions, the centre wavelength of which systematically moves to shorter wavelength as the atomic number (Z) increases, are observed in the CO2 LPPs, accompanied by sharp peaks coinciding with the strongest resonance lines of Pd-like ions for lower Z elements. In contrast, the quasicontinuum bands are broader and smoother in the Nd:YAG LPPs, appearing with bands of n=4–5 transitions on the shorter wavelength side. The results are also discussed based on comparisons with atomic structure calculations for ions with outermost 4d and 4f subshells.
A tapered parallel plate waveguide was developed for frequency up-conversion experiments in the terahertz (THz) region by flash ionization. The element at the plasma-source-wave interaction area ...determines the conversion efficiency. It causes THz pulses to converge to a narrow plate separation, which is smaller than the wavelength. The waveguide exhibited good performance for transmitting p-polarized THz pulses in a 50 μm separation, making it suitable for flash ionization experiments.
Optical-field-induced ionization (OFI) electrons were produced in a 30 cm Ar-filled hollow fiber by shining a high-intensity laser into the fiber. By use of such a long plasma with the help of a ...multilayer dielectric mirror made for 126 nm emission, we observed significant optical amplification of the Ar2 emission at 126 nm. The optical amplification resulted in a maximum small signal gain coefficient of 0.16 cm at 126 nm at 10 atm of Ar pressure.
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