OncoLog Volume 52, Numbers 04/05, April/May 2007

Endocrine Center Unites Specialists Prescribing Hormone Replacement: What Now? House Call: Writing for Wellness: Keeping a Journal\ DiaLog: What Your Patients Aren’t Telling You, by Moshe Frenkel, MD, Associate Professor, Medical Director, Integrative Medicine Programhttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1158/thumbnail.jp

Diffusion of a Deformable Body in a random Flow

We consider a deformable body immersed in an incompressible liquid that is randomly stirred. Sticking to physical situations in which the body departs only slightly from its spherical shape, we calculate the diffusion constant of the body. We give explicitly the dependence of the diffusion constant on the velocity correlations in the liquid and on the size of the body. We emphasize the particular case in which the random velocity field follows from thermal agitation.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, late

Integrative Oncology: An International Perspective from Six Countries.

In June 2019, a meeting was held in Paris in which experts from different countries (Israel, Spain, Belgium, Italy, USA, and France) met to discuss a selection of topics in integrative oncology (IO). The objectives were to draw on the delegates’ experience and expertise to begin an international collaboration, sharing details of differing existing models and discussing future perspectives to help define and guide practice in IO and define unmet needs. This report presents a summary of the meeting’s main presentations, and also reports on the experts’ responses to a questionnaire examining different aspects of IO service delivery, infrastructure, and utilization.post-print203 K

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Health professionals and cancer patients: How to communicate effectively about complementary, integrative and alternative medicine

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in oncology settings is widespread. Improving CAM-related communication within the sphere of conventional cancer care is crucial to patient safety, optimal treatment outcomes and the patient’s trust in healthcare professionals. Studies have revealed, however, that only a few oncologists and physicians feel comfortable discussing CAM with cancer patients. This situation may have arisen as the result of various barriers to communication, including insufficient scientific knowledge, of the risks and positive outcomes of CAM. Other factors might involve lack of time during clinical consultations and also concerns about the financial costs associated with CAM use. Although many cancer patients express a wish to disclose their use of CAM to healthcare professionals, less than 50% actually do so. Of the cancer patients raising the subject of CAM use in oncology settings, quite a number have reported negative experiences as a consequence; some of these may even have led to a decision to delay or even decline important conventional treatment. Effective communication is thus an essential component in upholding the cancer patient’s trust in healthcare professionals, as well as acting to encourage the patient’s likelihood of adhering to evidence-based recommendations. Delays in conventional cancer treatment, or negative interactions between conventional and CAM treatments, might thereby be more effectively avoided

Microencapsulation of model oil in wall matrices consisting of SPI and maltodextrins

Microencapsulation can provide means to entrap, protect and deliver nutritional lipids and related compounds that are susceptible to deterioration. The encapsulation of high lipid loads represents a challenge. The research has investigated the encapsulation by spray drying of a model oil, at a core load of 25–60%, in wall systems consisting of 2.5–10% SPI and 17.5–10% maltodextrin. In general, core-in-wall-emulsions exhibited unimodal PSD and a mean particle diameter &lt; 0.5 µm. Dry microcapsules ranged in diameter from about 5 to less than 50 µm and exhibited only a limited extent of surface indentation. Core domains, in the form of protein-coated droplets, were embedded throughout the wall matrices and no visible cracks connecting these domains with the environment could be detected. Core retention ranged from 72.2 to 95.9% and was significantly affected (p &lt; 0.05) by a combined influence of wall composition and initial core load. Microencapsulation efficiency, MEE, ranged from 25.4 to 91.6% and from 12.4 to 91.4% after 5 and 30 min of extraction, respectively (p &lt; 0.05). MEE was significantly influenced by wall composition, extraction time, initial core load and DE value of the maltodextrins. Results indicated that wall solutions containing as low as 2.5% SPI and 17.5% maltodextrin were very effective as microencapsulating agents for high oil load. Results highlighted the functionality of SPI as microencapsulating agent in food applications and indicated the importance of carefully designing the composition of core-in-wall-emulsions