Hair loss impact on quality of life of patients with oncological diseases – pilot study

In oncological treatment hair loss is one of the adverse events related to the use of cytostatic drugs. Hair loss is a problem that to affects people’s well-being and quality of life. The aim of the study was to check the impact of hair loss in those patients who alopecia induced by cytotoxic drug therapy. The study performed from March to April 2018, and it was focused on the adult population of oncological patients who developed alopecia during oncological chemotherapy The study was conducted among 25 people. For that purpose a self – designed two questionnaires were developed: one concerning the quality of life and the other – the Hair Loss Impact Vignette (HLIV) and validated through the study. Hair loss in men has little or no effect on shopping, housework and sports, while in women it only affects housework. Both in case of women and men, it has a very strong influence on social life, perception in the environment and contacts with partners, family and friends. The quality of life related to hair loss was the overall result was -0,74 and it is considered as a low. 78,9% of the interviewed women strongly agreed that losing their hair negatively affects their social life or leisure time activities. Both women and men in the vast majority of respondents declared feeling discomfort and depression in connection with the hair loss. Most of the surveyed women believe that the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes is as negative an experience as the loss of the hair on the head. For the majority of men surveyed, the scalp hair is more important than the eyebrows and eyelashes. The study shows that hair loss in the course of cancer therapy with cytotoxic drugs has the greatest impact on the quality of life in relation to the social functioning and social activities, however does not significantly affect the individual activities. The pilot study for HLIV vignette validation confirms that the tool is appropriate for use to assess the impact of the hair loss on patients’ daily activities

Dielectric spectroscopy of pressurized Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Results of broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast), in situ as the function of pressure are presented. They show a clear evidence of a threshold to the new pattern of the pressure evolution of the static dielectric permittivity and DC electric conductivity already for P t  ≈ 200MPa at T = 5o C and P t  ≈ 300MPa at T = 25o C. BDS monitoring versus pressure tests up to P = 400MPa revealed particularly notable changes of properties after 30 minutes of compressing. Finally, the correlation between the amount of the spectrophotometric maximum absorbance and the DC electric conductivity was found. All these indicate significance of BDS as the tool for testing of pressure properties of cells assemblies, model foods etc., in situ under high pressures

Intravenous iron supplementation improves energy metabolism of exercising skeletal muscles without effect on either oxidative stress or inflammation in male patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction

Background: Skeletal muscle dysfunction is a feature of heart failure (HF). Iron deficiency (ID) is prevalent in patients with HF associated with exercise intolerance and poor quality of life. Intravenous iron in iron deficient patients with HF has attenuated HF symptoms, however the pathomechanisms remain unclear. The aim of study was to assess whether intravenous iron supplementation as compared to placebo improves energy metabolism of skeletal muscles in patients with HF. Methods: Men with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and ID were randomised in 1:1 ratio to either intravenous ferric carboxymaltose (IV FCM) or placebo. In vivo reduction of lactates by exercising skeletal muscles of forearm was analyzed. A change in lactate production between week 0 and 24 was considered as a primary endpoint of the  study. Results: There were two study arms: the placebo and the IV FCM (12 and 11 male patients with HFrEF). At baseline, there were no differences between these two study arms. IV FCM therapy as compared to placebo reduced the exertional production of lactates in exercising skeletal muscles. These effects were accompanied by a significant increase in both serum ferritin and transferrin saturation in the IV FCM arm which was not demonstrated in the placebo arm. Conclusions: Intravenous iron supplementation in iron deficient men with HFrEF improves the functioning of skeletal muscles via an improvement in energy metabolism in exercising skeletal muscles, limiting the contribution of anaerobic reactions generating ATP as reflected by a lower in vivo lactate production in exercising muscles in patients with repleted iron stores

Age-dependent determinants of infectious complications profile in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation : lesson from the nationwide study

Incidence and outcome of microbiologically documented bacterial/viral infections and invasive fungal disease (IFD) in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) were compared in 650 children and 3200 adults in multicenter cross-sectional nationwide study. Infections were diagnosed in 60.8% children and 35.0% adults, including respectively 69.1% and 63.5% allo-HCT, and 33.1% and 20.8% auto-HCT patients. The incidence of bacterial infections was higher in children (36.0% vs 27.6%; p  21 days were risk factors for death from infection. In conclusion, pediatric patients have 2.9-fold higher incidence and 2.5-fold better outcome of infections than adults after HCT

High efficacy and safety of VTD as an induction protocol in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma eligible for high dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation : a report of the Polish Myeloma Study Group

The present retrospective analysis evaluated the efficacy and safety of the VTD (bortezomib, thalidomide, dexamethasone) regimen in 205 newly‑diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma (MM) eligible for high dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDT/ASCT) in routine clinical practice. With a median of 6 cycles (range, 1‑8), at least partial response was achieved in 94.6% and at least very good partial response (VGPR) was achieved in 67.8% of patients. Peripheral neuropathy (PN) grade 2‑4 was observed in 28.7% of patients. In 72% of patients undergoing stem cell mobilization one apheresis allowed the number of stem cells sufficient for transplantation to be obtained. Following HDT/ASCT the sCR rate increased from 4.9 to 14.4% and CR from 27.8 to 35.6%. The results demonstrated that VTD as an induction regimen was highly efficient in transplant eligible patients with MM with increased at least VGPR rate following prolonged treatment (≥6 cycles). Therapy exhibited no negative impact on stem cell collection, neutrophils and platelets engraftment following ASCT. Therapy was generally well tolerated and PN was the most common reason of dose reduction or treatment discontinuation

Clinical features, etiology, and survival in patients with restrictive cardiomyopathy: A single-center experience

Background: Numerous prognostic factors have been proposed for cardiac amyloidosis (CA). The knowledge about other subtypes of restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is scant.Aims: This study aimed to elucidate the etiology and prognostic factors of RCM as well as assess cardiac biomarkers: high-sensitive troponin T (hs-TnT), growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2, as mortality predictors in RCM.Methods: We enrolled 36 RCM patients in our tertiary cardiac department. All patients were screened for CA. Genetic testing was performed in 17 patients without CA.Results: Pathogenic or likely pathogenic gene variants were found in 86% of patients, including 5 novel variants. Twenty patients died, and 4 had a heart transplantation during the study. Median overall survival was 29 months (8–55). The univariate Cox models analysis indicated that systolic and diastolic blood pressure, GDF-15, hs-TnT, NT-proBNP, left ventricular stroke volume, the ratio of the transmitral early peak velocity (E) estimated by pulsed wave Doppler over the early mitral annulus velocity (e’), tricuspid annulus plane systolic excursion, early tricuspid valve annular systolic velocity, the presence of pulmonary hypertension, and pericardial effusion influenced survival (P <0.05). A worse prognosis was observed in patients with GDF-15 >1316 pg/ml, hs-TnT >42 ng/l, NT-proBNP >3383 pg/ml, and pericardial effusion >3.5 mm (Kaplan-Meier analysis, log-rank test, P <0.001).Conclusions: Genetic testing should be considered in every RCM patient where light-chain amyloidosis has been excluded. Survival remains poor regardless of etiology. Increased concentrations of GDF-15, hs-TNT, NT-proBNP, and pericardial effusion are associated with worse prognosis. Further studies are warranted

Clinical spectrum and outcome of invasive mucormycosis in children and adults: Polish experience of the decade 2010–2019

No epidemiological data exist so far on invasive mucormycosis (IM) in Polish hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and pediatric hemato-oncology (PHO) centers. The objective of this study was to analyze the incidence, clinical course, therapy, and outcome of IM in pediatric and adult patients undergoing HCT and children with hemato-oncological diseases in Poland. A total number of 12425 at-risk patients were retrospectively analyzed, and the period between 2010 and 2019 was included. Patients were analyzed in three groups: nontransplant children with malignancies, children undergoing HCT, and adults after HCT. Twenty-one patients were diagnosed with IM, including 15 children (10 non-HCT, 5 HCT) and 6 HCT adults. Proven IM was confirmed in 18 patients, probable in 2 patients, and possible in 1 patient. Proven IM was diagnosed in 7.1% of all patients with invasive fungal diseases (IFDs), including 8.1% among PHO patients, 5.4% among pediatric HCT patients, and 7.0% among adult HCT patients. Clinically, pneumonia was diagnosed in 10 (47.6%) patients, involvement of the paranasal sinuses was found in 3 (14.3%) patients, gastrointestinal disease was noted in 2 (9.5%) patients, and disseminated mucormycosis was found in 6 (28.6%) patients. The probability of overall survival in IM patients was 0.50 ± 0.11. Infection-related mortality (IRM) was 10% for pediatric nontransplant IM patients and 82% for transplant IM (pediatric + adult) patients ( = 0.004). Among the transplant patients, all adults died within 120 days. IRM for pediatric HCT patients was 60% ( = 0.038). The only prognostic factor was HCT, which adversely influenced survival in IM patients