Health-related quality of life evaluated by tumor node metastasis staging system in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To investigate and evaluate the change in healthrelated quality of life (HRQoL) by tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging system in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: A total of 140 patients diagnosed with HCC between June 2008 and April 2009 in our department were enrolled to this study. One hundred and thirty-five (96.5%) patients had liver cirrhosis secondary to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, 73 (54.07%) of them being HBV DNA positive; the other etiologies of liver cirrhosis were alcoholic liver disease (1.4%), hepatitis C (1.4%) or cryptogenic (0.7%). All subjects were fully aware of their diagnosis and provided informed consent. HRQoL was assessed before treatment using the functional assessment of cancer therapy-hepatobiliary (FACT-Hep) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate demographics and disease-specific characteristics of the patients. One-way analysis of variance and independent samples t tests were used to compare the overall FACT-Hep scores and clinically distinct TNM stages. Scores for all FACT-Hep items were analyzed by frequency analyses. The mean scores obtained from the FACT-Hep in different Child-Pugh classes were also evaluated. RESULTS: The mean FACT-Hep scores were reduced significantly from TNM StageⅠto Stage Ⅱ, Stage ⅢA, Stage ⅢB group (687 ± 39.69 vs 547 ± 42.57 vs 387 ± 51.24 vs 177 ± 71.44, P = 0.001). Regarding the physical and emotional well-being subscales, scores decreased gradually from Stage Ⅰ to Stage ⅢB (P = 0.002 vs Stage Ⅰ; P = 0.032 vs Stage Ⅱ; P = 0.033 vs Stage ⅢA). Mean FACT-Hep scores varied by Child-Pugh class, especially in the subscales of physical well-being, functional well-being and the hepatobiliary cancer (P = 0.001 vs Stage I; P = 0.036 vs Stage Ⅱ; P = 0.032 vs Stage ⅢA). For the social and family well-being subscale, only Stage ⅢB scores were significantly lower as compared with Stage Ⅰ scores (P = 0.035). For the subscales of functional well-being and hepatobiliary cancer, there were significant differences for Stages ⅡΙ, ⅢA and ⅢB (P = 0.002vs StageⅠ). CONCLUSION: HRQoL of patients with HCC worsens gradually with progression of TNM stages. The most impaired subscales of HRQoL, as measured by FACT-Hep, were physical and emotional well-being.

Quality Assurance in Toxicology Studies in Developing Countries

As developing countries become more involved in the international chemical trade, they must adhere to certain requirements for importation of their chemicals into foreign countries. These developing countries will be required to provide basic safety information on their chemical products, including data developed from chemical and toxicologic testing. These data must be developed in accordance with the national requirements of the importing country. Many importing countries have adopted the OECD Test Guidelines and the OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) as primary guidance to assure the quality of laboratory data. These procedures provide a basis for internationally acceptable data. Several countries have incorporated many of these provisions into their national laws or administrative procedures. These procedures describe the process of documenting the conduct of laboratory studies, including recording of data, reporting of study results, and storage of data gathered. This process is intended to assure the quality and integrity of the data so that, if required, the study can be reconstructed by an auditor or an inspector. Details of these procedures and their applicability to the international chemical trade are discussed. 1989 Academic Press, Inc.

Preliminary studies on rice quality of japonica-indica hybrid rice

It has been proved that high yield combina-tions can be obtained via hybridization betweenindica and japonica rice. However, people haveworried about the quality of this kind of ricefor a long time. Our researches were mainlybased on the mating pattern of "japonica malesterile line/indica restorer line" to generateand select elite japonicalinous crosses. Ricequality is shown in table 1 and 2. The scores of rice quality of 7 crossesranged from 56-59, and met the high quality

Indoor and Outdoor Particulate Matter Exposure of Rural Interior Alaska Residents

To assess the exposure of residents in rural communities in the Yukon Flats to particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM2.5), both indoor and outdoor concentration observations were carried out from March to September 2019 in Ft. Yukon, Alaska. Indoor concentrations were measured at 0.61 m (breathing level during sleeping) in homes and at 1.52 m heights (breathing level of standing adult) in homes and office/commercial buildings. Air quality was better at both heights in cabins than frame homes both during times with and without surface-based inversions. In frame houses, concentrations were higher at 0.61 m than 1.52 m, while the opposite is true typically for cabins. Differences between shoulder season and summer indoor concentrations in residences were related to changes in heating, subsistence lifestyle and mosquito repellents. In summer, office and commercial buildings, air quality decreased due to increased indoor emissions related to increased use of equipment and mosquito pics as well as more merchandise. During summer indoor concentrations reached unhealthy for sensitive groups to hazardous conditions for extended times that even exceeded the high outdoor concentrations. Due to nearby wildfires, July mean outdoor concentrations were 55.3 μg·m-3 which exceeds the 24-h US National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 35 μg·m-3. Indoor and outdoor concentrations correlated the strongest with each other for office/commercial buildings, followed by frame houses and cabins. Office/commercial buildings with temperature monitors had one to two orders of magnitude lower concentrations than those without.

Type A People May Have Lower Quality of Life:Study

一项小型研究发现,具有A型个性者(其表现特征为易怒,敌意,急躁)其生活质量似乎就比较 低。

Reliability and validity of Persian version of Medical Outcome Study-HIV health survey in Iranian people living with HIV

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the medical outcome study human immunodeficiency virus(MOS-HIV)health survey among people living with HIV or acquired immune deficiency syndrome(HIV/AIDS) in Iran is our main goal in this study.METHODS: The MOS-HIV questionnaire was translated into Persian using backward translation and the Persian version was filled by 100 HIV infected patients. Reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total questionnaire and for each dimension. Convergent, discriminant and construct validity were performed. Comparisons were performed between the subscales of the questionnaire in Iran and some other countries with t-test.RESULTS: The overall Cronbach's alpha in this study was 0.90 and the range of this coefficient was from 0.71 to 0.86 across the subscales with two exceptions, general health perception and role functioning, which were at 0.65 and 0.61. Convergent and discriminant validity were excellent in all domains. The two factor confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit based on standardized estimates of factor loading, incremental and absolute fit indices.CONCLUSION: The Persian version of the MOS-HIV had good reliability and validity in measuring health related quality of life in people living with HIV in Iran. Furthermore, quality of life for HIV infected patients was very low in comparing with the people in some other countries.