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Aims: We sought to analyse quality of life (QoL) measures derived from two questionnaires widely used in clinical trials, the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) and the EuroQoL 5 dimensions (EQ-5D), and to compare their prognostic value in men and women with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).Methods and results: From the BIOlogy Study to TAilored Treatment in Chronic Heart Failure (BIOSTAT-CHF) we compared KCCQ and EQ-5D at baseline and after 9 months in 1276 men and 373 women with new-onset or worsening symptoms of HFrEF, who were sub-optimally treated and in whom there was an anticipated up-titration of guideline-derived medical therapies. Women had significantly worse baseline QoL (median) as compared with men, both when assessed with KCCQ overall score (KCCQ-OS, 44 vs. 53, P < 0.001) and EQ-5D utility score (0.62 vs. 0.73, P < 0.001). QoL improved equally in women and men at follow-up. All summary measures of QoL were independently associated with all-cause mortality, with KCCQ-OS showing the most remarkable association with mortality up to 1 year compared to the EQ-5D scores (C-statistic 0.650 for KCCQ-OS vs. 0.633 and 0.599 for EQ-5D utility score and EQ-5D visual analogue scale, respectively). QoL was associated with all outcomes analysed, both in men and women (all P for interaction with sex >0.2).Conclusion: Amongst patients with HFrEF, women reported significantly worse QoL than men. QoL was independently associated with subsequent outcome, similarly in men and women. The KCCQ in general, and the KCCQ-OS in particular, showed the strongest independent association with outcome.

Although, the clinical variants of Alzheimer's disease (AD) show distinct patterns of cognitive and behavioral decline, disease progression, and neuropathological features, it is unclear if this clinical heterogeneity extends to sleep-wake patterns. Sleep and wake disturbances are frequent in typical AD, often preceding memory loss and negatively impacting the quality of life of patients and caregivers alike. Still, sleep and wake disorders are often misdiagnosed and undertreated in typical AD. Better characterization of sleep-wake features in AD clinical variants is an unmet gap of high importance because these differing patterns may require tailored treatment strategies. Moreover, as wake-promoting neurons are located in subcortical nuclei and degenerate early in typical AD, contrasting the profiles of sleep-wake patterns in typical and atypical AD aids diagnosis and brings a unique opportunity to uncover the mechanisms underlying AD clinical variants at the subcortical level and mechanisms for selective neuronal vulnerability.

There is disagreement between the American and the European guidelines for hypertension management in regard to the optimal blood pressure target in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses of individual patient data pooled from these trials do not clearly support an intensive blood pressure target for the entire population of CKD patients with hypertension. However, some evidence suggests that in CKD patients with proteinuria strict blood pressure control might confer benefit in terms of renal outcome. Tailored treatment strategy based on the individual's proteinuric profile and tolerability along with standardization of blood pressure measurement methodology including out-of-office evaluation are of paramount importance in patients with CKD.

Nursing care plans provide an organised framework to facilitate and record the assessment, planning and implementation of nursing care. They have the potential to improve patient care by supporting individually tailored treatment and may also be used as a tool to improve communication between members of the multidisciplinary team, and between the team and their clients. This article highlights the importance of care plans for patient care, and discusses their use by the entire multidisciplinary team with the aim of promoting more effective working practices.

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are increasingly used for treatment and prevention of thromboembolic diseases, used in fixed dose regimens. Although their safety and efficacy profiles are considered optimal, clinical events still occur. Given that anticoagulation treatment is a delicate balance between clotting and bleeding, it is possible that an optimal target spot exists where the effect of anticoagulation achieves both the lowest possible risk of bleeding and thrombosis. Other currently available anticoagulants (ie, vitamin K antagonists and heparins) provide important clues for this. If such a target spot exists, tailored DOAC therapy may further benefit patients. This opinion article summarizes the current available evidence that suggests that such a tailored strategy could work. It also describes research suggestions for conducting studies in patient populations such as patients with extremes of body weight or impaired kidney function to evaluate whether tailored treatment with DOACs could lead to better patient outcomes.

The aim of this study was to assess the oral health literacy knowledge gained by patients who are refugees, community members, and medical and nursing students after participating in an interprofessional education collaborative of students and faculty from the University of Texas Health San Antonio Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, and Nursing. In this faculty-student collaborative practice, all patients were triaged (including oral hygiene status and alcohol/tobacco use), and tailored treatment options were offered following assessment of their dental, medical, and social histories. The study was designed as a pre-post assessment of an educational intervention on oral health literacy. In the pretest, all groups were invited to respond to questionnaires assessing their knowledge of oral health. After participants engaged in oral hygiene instruction demonstrations and received information about an oral health literacy campaign, a posttest was conducted to assess knowledge gained. A total of 151 patients who were refugees, 38 medical students, 34 nursing students, and 17 community/parish members voluntarily participated in this initiative. Each group had a significant increase in mean oral health literacy score from pre- to posttest: patients 33.5%, community/parish members 22.3%, nursing students 20.8%, and medical students 13% (all p

Aims Tailored therapy of lung cancer requires high-quality pathology. Tumours must be subtyped accurately and material preserved for genetic analysis upon which treatment is increasingly based. There is a presumption that pathologists have risen to this challenge, but the nature and degree of variation in practice and quality are unknown. Methods and results We collected detailed information on 1507 consecutive, newly diagnosed patients referred to 19 UK lung cancer units, ranging from district general hospitals to specialist cardiothoracic units. In only four centres were pathologists handling thoracic biopsies enrolled in the thoracic external quality assessment (EQA) scheme. Achievement of a positive diagnosis of malignancy ranged from 53 to 88%. Variation in tumour subtypes was wide, and the proportion of biopsies classified as merely ‘non-small-cell lung cancer, not otherwise specified’ varied from 3 to 20%, despite almost universal use of immunochemistry. The proportion of tumours tested for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation ranged from 12 to 92%. Conclusions There is considerable variation in practice among UK pathologists and arguably in the quality of pathology, raising questions about expertise, adherence to guidelines, rigour of EQA and, ultimately, the reliability of the pathology that underpins the management of lung cancer.

Neutralizing inhibitors develop in 20-30% of patients with severe factor VIII (FVIII) deficiency. It is well established that Blacks have a higher prevalence of inhibitors than Whites. This is the first study to definitively demonstrate increased inhibitor prevalence in the Hispanic population. We compared inhibitor prevalence among various racial and ethnic groups in a cross-sectional analysis of 5651 males with severe haemophilia A that participated in the Universal Data Collection project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We used logistic regression analysis to control for potential confounding variables. We assigned as Hispanic those participants who were white and labelled themselves Hispanic. The prevalence of high-titre inhibitors in the Hispanic participants was 24.5% compared to 16.4% for White non-Hispanic patients (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1, 1.7). Possibilities as to the underlying cause of increased inhibitor prevalence in minority ethnic populations include polymorphisms in the FVIII molecule, HLA subtypes and differing inflammatory responses. A better understanding may lead to tailored treatment programmes, or other therapies, to decrease or prevent inhibitor development.

Aim. To describe and perform a tailored treatment programme based on a behavioural medicine approach to enhance haemodialysis patients’ self-management of fluid restriction.Background. Haemodialy ...

Patients with carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) present with metastatic disease for which the primary site cannot be found, despite extensive standard investigation. Here, we describe the development and implementation of the first clinically available microarray-based test for this cancer type (CUPPrint), based on 633 individual tumors representing 30 carcinoma and 17 noncarcinoma classes. Tissue of origin prediction for either fresh frozen or paraffin-embedded tumor samples is achieved with the use of a custom 8-pack 1.9k microarray and robust classification algorithm. An expression profile of 495 genes was used to predict tumor origin by applying a k-nearest neighbor algorithm. Internal cross-validation and analysis of an independent, previously published, 229-sample dataset revealed that clinically informative predictions were made for up to 94% of samples analyzed. Analysis of 13 previously published CUP specimens yielded predicted tumor origins that supported the clinical suspicion in 12 cases (92%). Microarray profiling presents a promising tool to assist in the identification of the primary tumor and might direct a more tailored treatment for CUP patients.

Drug abuse among women is a societal health problem which has received greater attention in recent years. Studies examining sex differences in drug abuse have shown consistent differences between males and females. In the current study, we retrospectively examined 75 treatment-seeking females to determine the relationships between intake measurements of psychopathology, intake urinalysis, menstrual cycle phase at admission, and treatment compliance. Our results support a relationship among these variables and a potential relationship between menstrual cycle phase and anxiety level is discussed. These results support the need for the development of individually tailored treatment programs.

Summary. The management of haemophilia patients with high inhibitor titres remains a major clinical challenge. In this manuscript, we present the new developments in the treatment and laboratory monitoring of these patients. First, we discuss a general treatment algorithm to control severe bleeding episodes in these patients, established by an international panel of haemophilia specialists. The main features of this algorithm concern (i) the optimal timing of clinical and therapeutic decisions and (ii) the appropriate use of recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) or activated prothrombin complex concentrates. However, until the clinical value of this algorithm is validated in real-world practice, the use of single high doses of rFVIIa should be considered as a valuable therapeutic option. Secondly, we present four laboratory assays, potential surrogate markers for the efficacy of bypassing agents used in haemophilia patients with high titre inhibitors. Preliminary data suggest that some of these tests, notably thromboelastography and the thrombin generation test, may be helpful for predicting the individual bleeding risk and for providing individually tailored treatment regimens. Overall, it may be hoped that these new developments will lead to a marked improvement in the clinical management of haemophilia patients with inhibitors in the near future.

In the last decade, pediatric cardiologists have witnessed a revolution in the knowledge of the pathophysiology of rare arrhythmias. The identification of the molecular basis of several hereditary arrhythmia syndromes has been instrumental in this development. Within 12 years the number of causal genes has increased from two in 1995 to at least 24 early 2007 (Table I). Based on this knowledge, established treatment strategies in the 1990s have been modified during the most recent years. This leads to timely and tailored treatment of (asymptomatic) gene carriers, both through personalized lifestyle advices and pharmacologically. At the same time and of equal importance, unaffected family members (noncarriers) can be reassured.

Contains fulltext : 58457.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Falls and freezing of gait are two "episodic" phenomena that are common in Parkinson's disease. Both symptoms are often incapacitating for affected patients, as the associated physical and psychosocial consequences have a great impact on the patients' quality of life, and survival is diminished. Furthermore, the resultant loss of independence and the treatment costs of injuries add substantially to the health care expenditures associated with Parkinson's disease. In this clinically oriented review, we summarise recent insights into falls and freezing of gait and highlight their similarities, differences, and links. Topics covered include the clinical presentation, recent ideas about the underlying pathophysiology, and the possibilities for treatment. A review of the literature and the current state-of-the-art suggests that clinicians should not feel deterred by the complex nature of falls and freezing of gait; a careful clinical approach may lead to an individually tailored treatment, which can offer at least partial relief for many affected patients.

Heart transplantation rates are limited by a shortage of donor hearts, and left ventricular dysfunction is an important cause. We hypothesized that an early echocardiographic evaluation in severe brain injury (performed within 12 hours from ICU admission) could allow the detection of potentially reversible left ventricular (LV) abnormalities and thus the initiation of tailored treatment whose effects could be assessed at a second echocardiogram performed when brain death develops. We assessed this hypothesis in 49 patients with severe brain injury who were potential heart donors. A reduction in LV ejection fraction (LVEF) (

Significant progress has been made in the research on smoking cessation and weight gain since the 1988 Surgeon General's Report, particularly on mechanisms and treatment methods. Smoking cessation results in weight gain in most quitters, primarily due to changes in caloric intake and to a lesser extent from changes in energy expenditure. Thus far, pharmacologic treatments appear more efficacious at preventing the weight gain than behavioral methods. And regarding who should receive treatment, preliminary research suggests that females are more concerned about postcessation weight gain than males, and it is the concern about weight gain--more than the weight gain itself--that appears to play an important role in relapse to smoking. Given the progress that has been made along the spectrum from mechanisms to treatment, those concerned about postcessation weight now have treatment options for preventing weight gain in the critical period immediately after smoking cessation. However, continued research into mechanisms, treatment methods, and individual differences will surely result in new and more effectively tailored treatment options.