Objective: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 health-related quality of life questionnaire is one of the most widely used cancer-specific health-related quality of life questionnaires worldwide. General population norm data can facilitate the interpretation of QLQ-C30 data obtained from cancer patients. This study aimed at systematically collecting norm data from the general population to develop European QLQ-C30 norm scores and to generate comparable norm data for individual countries in Europe and North America. Methods: We collected QLQ-C30 data from the general population across 11 European Union (EU) countries, Russia, Turkey, Canada and United States (n ! 1000/country). Representative samples were stratified by sex and age groups (18e39, 40e49, 50e59, 60e69 and ! 70 years). After applying weights based on the United Nations population distribution statistics, we calculated QLQ-C30 domain scores to generate a 'European QLQ-C30 Norm' based on the EU countries. Further, we calculated QLQ-C30 norm scores for all 15 individual countries. Results: A total of 15,386 respondents completed the online survey. For the EU sample, most QLQ-C30 domains showed differences by sex/age, with men scoring somewhat better health than women, while age effects varied across domains. Substantially larger differences were seen in inter-country comparisons, with Austrian and Dutch respondents reporting consistently better health compared with British and Polish respondents. Conclusions: This study is the first to systematically collect EORTC QLQ-C30 general population norm data across Europe and North America applying a consistent data collection method across 15 countries. These new norm data facilitate valid intra-country as well as inter-country comparisons and QLQ-C30 score interpretation.

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The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and depression in essential blepharospasm (BSP) and idiopathic cervical dystonia (CD), to identify the clinical and demographic factors associated with poor HR-QoL in both disorders and to analyse the effect of Botulinum Toxin A (BtxA) therapy. Two hundred-twenty consecutive patients with BSP (N = 89, 62 % women, mean age 64 years, mean disease duration 7 years) and CD (N = 131, 64 % women, mean age 53 years, mean disease duration 8 years) recruited from routine referrals to eight Austrian dystonia clinics were included. HR-QoL was measured by the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and depression by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). At baseline, patients with CD and BSP scored significantly worse in all eight SF-36 domains compared with an age-matched community sample. In addition, 47 % of patients with CD and 37 % of those with BSP were depressed. Women with BSP scored significantly lower in all SF-36 domains and were more depressed than male patients. In contrast, there was no significant effect of gender on HR-QoL and depression in CD. Neck pain had a significant impact on all SF-36 domains and represented the main determinant of depression in CD. Although BtxA therapy resulted in a significant improvement of clinical symptoms in BSP and CD, HR-QoL did not improve in BSP and only two of the eight SF-36 domains improved significantly in patients with CD. The present study for the first time demonstrated that BSP has a substantial impact on health status emphasizing the need for psychological support with interventions aimed at treating depression in these patients. Our results provide further evidence for the profound impact of CD on HR-QoL and indicate the importance of an adequate management of neck pain in addition to reducing the severity of dystonia in CD. The mismatch between objective BtxA derived improvement of dystonia and lack of change of HR-QoL as determined by the SF-36 illustrates the need for optimized disease specific quality of life rating scales in patients with craniocervical dystonia.

Little is known how social interaction, if offered as an alternative to drug consumption, affects neural circuits involved in drug reinforcement and substance dependence. Conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine (15 mg/kg i.p.) or social interaction (15 minutes) as an alternative stimulus was investigated in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Four social interaction episodes with a male adult conspecific completely reversed cocaine CPP and were even able to prevent reacquisition of cocaine CPP. Social interaction also reversed cocaine CPP-induced expression of the immediate-early gene zif268 in the nucleus accumbens shell, the central and basolateral amygdala and the ventral tegmental area. These findings suggest that social interaction, if offered in a context that is clearly distinct from the previously drug-associated ones, may profoundly decrease the incentive salience of drug-associated contextual stimuli. The novel experimental design facilitates the neurobiological investigation of this phenomenon which may be beneficial for human drug users in treatment.

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The purpose of this study was radiologic assessment of osteoarthritis after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. At an average followup of 53.5 months, 284 consecutive patients were retrospectively evaluated clinically and radiologically. Two hundred forty-seven patients had been treated for medial (Group I) and 37 for lateral meniscal tears (Group II). Preoperative radiographs were compared with those at followup and were classified. The results were analyzed statistically. Osteoarthritic changes were classified as being worse in 38% of the patients after medial and in 24% of the patients after lateral arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Further subclassification and comparison of patients with or without already existing articular surface damage at the time of arthroscopy were not found to have significant impact on the prevention of osteoarthritic changes. Patients who were older than 40 years of age and who had undergone arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy were radiologically classified with a significantly higher rate of osteoarthritis than patients who were younger than 40 years. Partial medial or lateral meniscectomy leads to a significant increase of osteoarthritic changes, even when this intervention is performed arthroscopically.

IntroductionThere is still a clear need for a widely available, inexpensive and reliable method to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and monitor disease progression. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is a powerful analytic technique with a very high sensitivity and specificity.ObjectivesThe aim of the present study is to measure concentrations of 20 bile acids using the novel Kit from Biocrates Life Sciences based on LC-MS technique.MethodsTwenty bile acid metabolites were quantitatively measured in plasma of 30 cognitively healthy subjects, 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 30 patients suffering from AD.ResultsLevels of lithocholic acid were significantly enhanced in plasma of AD patients (50 ± 6 nM, p = 0.004) compared to healthy controls (32 ± 3 nM). Lithocholic acid plasma levels of MCI patients (41 ± 4 nM) were not significantly different from healthy subjects or AD patients. Levels of glycochenodeoxycholic acid, glycodeoxycholic acid and glycolithocholic acid were significantly higher in AD patients compared to MCI patients (p < 0.05). All other cholic acid metabolites were not significantly different between healthy subjects, MCI patients and AD patients. ROC analysis shows an overall accuracy of about 66%. Discriminant analysis was used to classify patients and we found that 15/23 were correctly diagnosed. We further showed that LCA levels increased by about 3.2 fold when healthy subjects converted to AD patients within a 8–9 year follow up period. Pathway analysis linked these changes to a putative toxic cholesterol pathway.ConclusionIn conclusion, 4 bile acids may be useful to diagnose AD in plasma samples despite limitations in diagnostic accuracy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11306-017-1297-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

After completing this course, the reader will be able to:1. Evaluate the effect of various chemotherapy regimens on taste alterations.2. Investigate the effect of chemotherapy-induced taste alterations on patients and use available dietary approaches such as taste enhancement and substitution of proteins and nutrients of avoided food to improve quality of life.This article is available for continuing medical education credit at CME.TheOncologist.com. CME CME ABSTRACTBackground. Taste alterations (TAs) are a frequent but under-recognized treatment side effect in cancer pa-