Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2008
Application of quality audit tools to evaluate care quality received by terminal cancer patients admitted to a palliative care unit.
We aimed to evaluate the palliative care quality for terminal cancer patients as a reference for prospective service improvements. ⋯ Patients in hospice care received adequate symptom relief. Total quality audit scores declined progressively over the 2 weeks following patient admission, indicating efficacy of palliative care quality.
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2008
Non-infectious causes of elevated procalcitonin and C-reactive protein serum levels in pediatric patients with hematologic and oncologic disorders.
Procalcitonin (PCT) is considered a sensitive and specific diagnostic and prognostic marker of systemic bacterial infection, but its value is questionable in certain clinical conditions, particularly in hemato-oncological patients. ⋯ PCT and CRP are of limited value as diagnostic markers of sepsis during T-cell-directed immunomodulatory treatment, granulocyte support, or acute GvHD.
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2008
The acute effect of tropisetron on ECG parameters in cancer patients.
The 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 receptor antagonists, including tropisetron, ondansetron, granisetron, and dolasetron are agents used effectively for supportive care. They are used for the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy-induced emesis. Despite their overall excellent safety profile, some electrocardiographic changes related to heart rate and repolarization were reported. Ondansetron, granisetron, and dolasetron were studied on this manner. But to our knowledge, there is no information about the cardiac side effects of tropisetron. In this study, we aimed to determine the acute effects of tropisetron on ECG parameters related to repolarization, heart rate, and systemic blood pressure. ⋯ In this study, tropisetron did not show any ventricular and atrial arrhythmogenic effect because of repolarization abnormalities. Only it may cause a slight decrease in heart rate.
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Support Care Cancer · Aug 2008
Applying the Delphi process to palliative care tool development: lessons learned.
The Delphi technique is an effective method for collecting and synthesizing informed opinions on a highly focused task, from a diverse group of experts who have specialized knowledge in an area of interest. This method has been successfully applied to palliative care research but not commonly to palliative care tool development. The Delphi technique has recently been employed in the development of two palliative pain assessment tools: the Edmonton Classification System for Cancer Pain (ECS-CP) and the Alberta Breakthrough Pain Assessment Tool for Research (ABPAT-R). ⋯ Depending on the design, the Delphi technique can facilitate national or international cooperation both asynchronously (e.g., with mail-out or electronic surveys) and synchronously (e.g., with face-to-face meetings or videoconferencing). International input can assure palliative care tools are relevant in diverse clinical settings and practice cultures. The use of the Delphi technique in palliative care tool development may thereby facilitate international collaborations, rapid knowledge transfer, and effective uptake of novel tools across diverse palliative care settings.
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Support Care Cancer · Aug 2008
Intravenous morphine consumption in outpatients with cancer during their last week of life--an analysis based on patient-controlled analgesia data.
Studies on opioid use in terminally ill cancer patients have shown a prefinal dose increase in the majority of patients. Mostly oral opioids were used. Due to the pharmacokinetic properties of opioids, it is rather difficult to get a reliable estimate of the true opioid need from those results. ⋯ During their end-of-life phase, cancer patients on i.v. morphine PCA showed a stable daily opioid need.