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Anxiety is a common, although partially hidden, problem in DTC survivors, as they tended to deny it early in the dialogues. As anxiety is clearly related to follow-up routines, these should therefore be revaluated.

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DTC patients reporting thyroid symptoms scored lower in HRQoL compared to those with no symptoms >14 years after diagnosis.

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Introduction To minimize recurrence risk in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), TSH is usually lifelong suppressed with levothyroxine. A common consequence of this treatment is subclinical hyperthyroidism which can induce cardiovascular disease (CV). This study's aim was to compare CV incidence in DTC patients with the general population in Sweden. Materials and methods All Swedish patients diagnosed with DTC in 1987-2013 were included in the cohort study. Lifelong TSH suppression treatment was assumed to be administered to patients in compliance with prevalent national guidelines. Patients were followed from 1 year after DTC diagnosis until December 31, 2014, death, or migration. The event of interest was hospitalization due to any of the following diseases: atrial fibrillation (AF), cerebrovascular disease, cerebral infarction, ischemic heart disease, ischemic heart attack, and heart failure. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated to compare CV incidence between DTC patients and the general population. Results The cohort consisted of 6900 patients with DTC. Hospitalization was increased among DTC patients for AF (SIR 1.66, CI 95% 1.41-1.94), and women faced increased hospitalization for cerebrovascular disease (SIR 1.20 CI 95% 1.04-1.38). Regarding the remaining CV diseases, no consistent difference in SIR between the groups was observed. Conclusion Compared to the general population, DTC patients have a higher incidence in AF, and female face a slightly higher incidence in cerebrovascular disease. However, there was no difference in hospitalization for other studied CV diseases between DTC patients and the general population. This paper was presented as an oral presentation at the IAES meeting/48th World Congress of Surgery August 11-15, 2019 in Kraków, Poland.

The reported frequency of most parasomnias decreases during pregnancy and even more in primiparas than multiparas.

Background At the time of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, little was known about how effective our regular end-of-life care strategies would be for patients dying from COVID-19 in hospitals. The aim of the study was to describe and evaluate end-of-life care for patients dying from COVID-19 in hospitals in Sweden up until up until 12 November 2020. Methods Data were collected from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care. Hospital deaths during 2020 for patients with COVID-19 were included and compared to a reference cohort of hospital patients who died during 2019. Logistic regression was used to compare the groups and to control for impact of sex, age and a diagnosis of dementia. Results The COVID-19 group (1476 individuals) had a lower proportion of women and was older compared to the reference cohort (13,158 individuals), 81.8 versus 80.6 years (p < .001). Breathlessness was more commonly reported in the COVID-19 group compared to the reference cohort (72% vs 43%, p < .001). Furthermore, anxiety and delirium were more commonly and respiratory secretions, nausea and pain were less commonly reported during the last week in life in the COVID-19 group (p < .001 for all five symptoms). When present, complete relief of anxiety (p = .021), pain (p = .025) and respiratory secretions (p = .037) was more often achieved in the COVID-19 group. In the COVID-19 group, 57% had someone present at the time of death compared to 77% in the reference cohort (p < .001). Conclusions The standard medical strategies for symptom relief and end-of-life care in hospitals seemed to be acceptable. Symptoms in COVID-19 deaths in hospitals were relieved as much as or even to a higher degree than in hospitals in 2019. Importantly, though, as a result of closing the hospitals to relatives and visitors, patients dying from COVID-19 more frequently died alone, and healthcare providers were not able to substitute for absent relatives.