Patients with cardiac failure (CF) present progressive incapacity and decreased quality of life, both related to dyspnea and fatigue. Thus, there is the increasing interest in measuring the quality ...of life (QL), by generic instrument, such as the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), by specific instrument, such as Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHFQ).
This study has the objective to correlate the QL surveys, SF-36 and MLHFQ, with the functional capacity of patients with CF, expressed by the cardiopulmonary test and the TC6M.
Using the SF-36 and MLHFQ surveys for QL evaluation, for the evaluation of the functional capacity, it was used the cardiopulmonary test, being executed using a tredmill with Weber protocol, as well sa the distance covered in the walk test of six minutes (TC6M).
Forty-six patients were selected with CF diagnosis (22 men, average age of 52 years old), classes II and III of New York Heart Association. It was observed that the mild correlation between the physical and emotional domains of SF-36 and VE/VCO2.peak (r=-0.3; p<0.05) and the distance covered in TC6M (r=0.4; p<0.05), respectively. It was also observed the mild to moderate correlations of MLHFQ total score with VO2.peak (r=-0.5; p<0.05), the aerobic threshold (r=-0.4; p<0.05) and the distance covered in TC6M (r=-0.5; p<0.05).
The data suggest that the application of both evaluation instruments of QL, generic (SF-36) and specific (MLHFQ) in patients with CF, showed mild and moderate correlation with the variable of the cardiopulmonary test with the variables of the cardiopulmonary test and the distance covered in TC6M.
To evaluate the effectiveness of external radiation therapy (ERT), alone or combined with endoluminal brachytherapy (BRT), following percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) in the treatment ...of patients affected by inoperable cholangiocarcinoma.
From September 1980 to June 1996, 130 jaundiced patients affected by inoperable cholangiocarcinoma were submitted to PTBD at the Division of Radiology C of the National Cancer Institute of Milan. Nineteen were excluded from the present analysis due to the short survival after PTBD (< 30 days). The other 111 patients were divided into three groups according to the following therapy: no further treatment after palliative PTBD in 89 patients (80%, group 1); ERT in 10 patients (9%, group 2); ERT plus BRT in 12 patients (11%, group 3). All the ERT + BRT patients were enrolled after 1990 and were treated with high-energy photon beams followed by endobiliary insertion of one or two iridium-192 wires.
Median overall survival among the 111 assessable patients was 126 days; for groups 1, 2 and 3 it was 108, 345 and 428 days, respectively. The patients submitted to radiotherapy (ERT alone or ERT + BRT) were evaluated by radiologic examinations after the end of radiation. In group 2, a partial remission in 3 cases, a progression of disease in 1 case, and no change in 6 cases were observed. Among the patients of group 3, complete remission in 5 and partial remission in 7 patients were achieved. In all the patients achieving complete remission, the PTBD could be removed.
The combination of ERT plus BRT improves survival and quality of life of the patients submitted to PTBD for cholangiocarcinoma. Under the technical point of view, radiation treatment is easy to perform, but much caution is required in defining clinical and planning target volumes. Moreover, drainage during the radiation treatment has to be submitted to a very meticulous surveillance.
New fluorescent ligands for adenosine receptors are described; these compounds were obtained by the insertion, in the N6 position of NECA (a potent adenosine agonist), of dansylaminoalkyl moieties ...with alkyl spacers of increasing carbon chain length (from 3 to 12). Among them, the compound with a C6 alkyl spacer proved to be the most interesting one, showing a marked selectivity for the A1 receptor subtype; furthermore, in fluorescence microscopy assays it proved to be able to visualize and localize this receptor subtype at the level of the molecular layer of the rate cerebellar cortex.
New fluorescent ligands for adenosine receptors (ARs), obtained by the insertion, in the N
6 position of NECA, of NBD-moieties with linear alkyl spacers of increasing length, proved to possess a high ...affinity and selectivity for the A
3 subtype expressed in CHO cells. In fluorescence microscopy assays, compound
2d, the most active and selective for human A
3-AR, permitted visualization and localization of this human receptor subtype, showing its potential suitability for internalization and trafficking studies in living cells.
Synthesis, binding and microscopy assays of new fluorescent probes (
2a–
e) for human A
3 adenosine receptors are reported.
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