Un nouveau type de matière active explique la formation d’agrégats bactériens et leur impact sur l’infection à méningocoque

International audienc

The National Tumor Association Foundation (ANT): A 30 year old model of home palliative care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Models of palliative care delivery develop within a social, cultural, and political context. This paper describes the 30-year history of the National Tumor Association (ANT), a palliative care organization founded in the Italian province of Bologna, focusing on this model of home care for palliative cancer patients and on its evaluation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected from the 1986-2008 ANT archives and documents from the Emilia-Romagna Region Health Department, Italy. Outcomes of interest were changed in: number of patients served, performance status at admission (Karnofsky Performance Status score [KPS]), length of participation in the program (days of care provided), place of death (home vs. hospital/hospice), and satisfaction with care. Statistical methods included linear and quadratic regressions. A linear and a quadratic regressions were generated; the independent variable was the year, while the dependent one was the number of patients from 1986 to 2008. Two linear regressions were generated for patients died at home and in the hospital, respectively. For each regression, the R square, the unstandardized and standardized coefficients and related P-values were estimated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The number of patients served by ANT has increased continuously from 131 (1986) to a cumulative total of 69,336 patients (2008), at a steady rate of approximately 121 additional patients per year and with no significant gender difference. The annual number of home visits increased from 6,357 (1985) to 904,782 (2008). More ANT patients died at home than in hospice or hospital; this proportion increased from 60% (1987) to 80% (2007). The rate of growth in the number of patients dying in hospital/hospice was approximately 40 patients/year (p < 0.01), vs. approximately 177 patients/year for patients who died at home. The percentage of patients with KPS < 40 at admission decreased from 70% (2003) to 30% (2008); the percentage of patients with KPS > 40 increased. Mean days of care for patients with KPS > 40 exceeded mean days for patients with KPS < 40 (p < 0.001). Patients and caregivers reported high satisfaction with care in each year of assessment; in 2008, among 187 interviewed caregivers, 95% judged the quality of doctors' assistance, and 91% judged the quality of nurses' assistance, to be "optimal."</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The ANT home care model of palliative care delivery has been well-received, with progressively growing numbers of patients served. It has resulted in a greater proportion of home deaths and in patients' accessing palliative care at an earlier point in the disease trajectory. Changes in ANT chronicle palliative care trends in general.</p

Quality of life assessment in cancer patients receiving single-agent versus multidrug chemotherapy protocols

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is an essential factor in therapeutic decision-making for human patients and is commonly used as an endpoint in clinical trials of cancer treatments. Aim: To compare owners’ perception of QoL in canine and feline patients affected by different tumor histotypes treated with single-agent or multidrug protocols. Methods: Owners were asked to assess the impact on QoL of their pets undergoing chemotherapy treatment by answering a questionnaire and assigning a score to different health-related parameters reported to affect QoL. Results: Questionnaires of 101 patients (85 dogs and 16 cats), collected at different time points, were analyzed. Fiftyseven patients were given single-agent chemotherapy (carboplatin, doxorubicin, lomustine, melphalan, mitoxantrone, vinblastine, and vinorelbine), whereas 44 were given multiple-agent treatment. When diverse factors including chemotherapy treatment type (single-agent vs. multidrug regimens) and the onset and kind of adverse effects were considered, no significant variations in owners’ perceptions of their pets’ QoL were discovered.Conclusion: Chemotherapy type (single-agent vs. multidrug protocol) and related adverse events are shown, which did not influence owners’ perception of their pet’s QoL. Future prospective studies should look into clinical characteristics that might affect QoL, such as the patient’s age, tumor stage, and protocol purpose (curative vs. palliative)

Sonoelastographic Features of the Patellar Ligament in Clinically Normal Dogs

Objective This article describes the sonoelastographic features of the patellar ligament of sound dogs and tests feasibility, reproducibility and repeatability. Methods Clinically healthy medium-to-large breed dogs were enrolled. Sonoelastographic images of the patellar ligaments were obtained in lateral recumbency with the stifle flexed by an experienced operator and by a senior veterinary student. The elasticity colour map included red (soft), green (intermediate) and blue (hard). Tissue elasticity was measured by calculating the percentage of softness with dedicated software. Categorical, qualitative data analysis was performed using a weighted kappa statistic for repeatability and reproducibility. A categorical qualitative assessment was performed based on a grading scale of 1 to 5 (soft, mostly soft, intermediate, mostly hard and hard). Results Fourteen clinically normal dogs were considered. A total of 28 patellar ligaments were examined. Overall, 25 of the patellar ligaments were graded as soft or mostly soft and the remaining 3 as intermediate. Repeatability was 86.2%, with a weighted kappa of 0.64 (good), for the well-trained sonographer and 83.3%, with a weighted kappa of 0.53 (moderate), for the senior student. Reproducibility was 86.2%, with a weighed kappa of 0.65 (good). Clinical Significance Sonoelastography of the canine patellar ligament is a feasible and reproducible technique. Patellar ligaments in clinically normal dogs showed highly elastic biomechanical properties. Copyright © 2018, Schattauer GmbH. All rights reserved

Correction to: Comprehension of written texts for the assessment of clinical competence and decision making in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease

The above article was published online with missing author. The additional author is Michele Scandola

Comprehension of written texts for the assessment of clinical competence and decision making in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease

BACKGROUND: Clinical competence is the term used to describe an individual's capacity to express a choice regarding their participation in clinical procedures or experimental studies. Understanding the information provided is a prerequisite but consent forms are often lengthy and complicated. Alzheimer's disease patients may be vulnerable in written comprehension, due to cognitive deficits, but unfortunately to date, a specific evaluation of this ability is not included in periodical assessments. METHODS: One hundred thirty Italian patients with Alzheimer's disease were compared with 130 controls in a comprehension task involving a simplified informed consent form. Their performance in this task was compared with their performance with two other types of reading material (a testament and a history text). In addition, the performance of a subgroup of very mild patients in this test was compared with their performance in a widely used interview for the assessment of clinical competence (MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research). RESULTS: Good sensitivity and specificity of the cut-offs identified consent form and the other texts as good instruments for evaluation of written comprehension. The comprehension of consent form may be compromised since the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, a simplified, written text may help patients in comparison with interviews (MacCAT-CR). Better performance was correlated to the standard of education and better cognitive functions. CONCLUSION: Deficits regarding the comprehension of written texts and the consent form may be early in Alzheimer's disease patients and need to be investigated during periodical neuropsychological assessment. Comprehension may be facilitated by means of specific simplification strategies

Intermittent pili-mediated forces fluidize Neisseria meningitidis aggregates promoting vascular colonization

International audienceNeisseria meningitidis, a bacterium responsible for meningitis and septicemia, proliferates and eventually fills the lumen of blood capillaries with multicellular aggregates. The impact of this aggregation process and its specific properties are unknown. We first show that aggregative properties are necessary for efficient infection and study their underlying physical mechanisms. Micropipette aspiration and single-cell tracking unravel unique features of an atypical fluidized phase, with single-cell diffusion exceeding that of isolated cells. A quantitative description of the bacterial pair interactions combined with active matter physics-based modeling show that this behavior relies on type IV pili active dynamics that mediate alternating phases of bacteria fast mutual approach, contact, and release. These peculiar fluid properties proved necessary to adjust to the geometry of capillaries upon bacterial proliferation. Intermittent attractive forces thus generate a fluidized phase that allows for efficient colonization of the blood capillary network during infection

Adhesion to nanofibers drives cell membrane remodeling through one-dimensional wetting

Meningococci remodel the plasma membrane of host cells during infection. Here, Charles-Orszag et al. show that plasma membrane remodeling occurs independently of F-actin, along meningococcal type IV pili fibers, by a physical mechanism that they term ‘one-dimensional’ membrane wetting