Older patients preferred pain relief/comfort as a treatment goal, but received fewer prescriptions for opioids. Whereas provider-initiated selleck chemical communication with patients/families was positively associated with severity of illness, patient/family-initiated
communication was associated with patient psychosocial attributes and care perspectives. Satisfaction with care was inversely associated with reports of pain. Symptom distress was positively associated with subsequent opioid prescriptions and hospitalizations.
Conclusions. Our results help to explain the role of patients’ psychosocial attributes, care perspectives, and preferences in subsequent care practices during the early treatment phase for late-stage cancer. Age-related differences in patient wellbeing and care perspectives suggest a role for age-sensitive interventions
in the treatment of advanced cancer patients.”
“Study aims. -The topography of the peaks of tibial.-nerve somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) varies among healthy subjects, most likely because of differences in position and orientation of their cortical generator(s). Therefore, amplitude estimation with a standard one- or two-channel derivation is likely to be inaccurate and might partly cause the low sensitivity of SEP amplitude to pathological selleck chemicals changes. In this study, we investigate whether 128-channel tibiat-nerve SEP recordings can improve amplitude estimation and reduce the coefficient of variation.
Methods. -We recorded tibial-nerve SEPs using a 128-channel. EEG system in 48 healthy subjects aged 20 to 70 years (47 provided analyzable data). We compared P39, N50, and P60 amplitudes obtained with a 128-channel analysis method (based on butterfly plots and spatial topographies) with those obtained using a one-channel conventional configuration and analysis. Scalp and earlobe references were compared.
Results. -Tibial-nerve SEP amplitudes obtained with the 128-channel method were significantly higher as compared clonidine to the one-channel
conventional method. Consequently, the coefficient of variation was lower for the 128-channel method. In addition, in both methods, the N50-peak amptitude was sometimes hard to identify, because of its low amplitude. Besides, in some subjects, the N50 peak, as obtained with the conventional method, rather seemed to be a period between two positivities rather than an activation peak on itself.
Conclusions. -The 128-channel method can measure tibial.-nerve SEP amplitude more accurately and might therefore be more sensitive to pathological changes. Our results indicate that the N50 component is less useful for clinical practice. (c) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.”
“Background. We examined whether questions addressing the effect of pain on day-to-day function add unique information to the standardized verbal descriptor scale for pain severity in nursing homes (NHs).
Methods.