The distress thermometer (DT) is a useful measure of psychological distress in cancer patients. Our objective was to investigate distress impact on oncology patients in Turkey and determine the optimal cut-off score on the DT for identifying clinically significant distress. One hundred and eighty two cancer patients completed the DT, Problem List (PL), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS), The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30 version 3.0). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses of DT scores yielded an estimated area under the curve of 0.66 when compared to the HADS cut-off score, suggesting the DT is an effective scale to discriminate between classified cancer patients both with and without clinically significant distress. The DT cut-off score of 4 yielded the optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity. Scores on the DT were moderately correlated to the HADS (p<0.01) and EORTC QLQ-C30. Based on the significant correlations, we conclude that the DT has acceptable criterion validity.

Objective: Frequent consumption of nuts is associated with favorable plasma lipid profiles and reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of hazelnut-enriched diet on plasma cholesterol and lipoprotein profiles in hypercholesterolemic adult men compared with baseline and control diet, and also to measure the anthropometric parameters, habitual physical activities, nutrient intake and endothelial function. Subjects and design: Fifteen hypercholesterolemic men aged 4878 years were recruited voluntarily. A well-controlled, 2-period (P 1 and P 2 ) study design with a total of 8-week was implemented. In the P 1 , subjects consumed a control diet (low-fat, low-cholesterol and high-carbohydrate). During the P 2 , the control diet was supplemented with MUFA-rich hazelnut (40 g/day), which provided 11.6% of total energy content. Anthropometric parameters and habitual physical activities were recorded. Plasma total and HDL cholesterol, TAG, ApoA-1, Apo B, total homocysteine and glucose concentrations were measured. All parameters and measurements were obtained at baseline and end of each 4-week diet period. Results: Body weights of subjects remained stable throughout the study. Compared with baseline, the hazelnut-enriched diet decreased (Po0.05) the concentrations of VLDL cholesterol, triacylglycerol, apolipoprotein B by 29.5, 31.8, and 9.2%, respectively, while increasing HDL cholesterol concentrations by 12.6%. Total/HDL cholesterol and LDL/HDL cholesterol ratios favorably decreased (Po0.05). Although insignificant there was a decreasing trend for the rest of parameters, particularly in total (5.2%) and LDL cholesterol (3.3%) in subjects consuming a hazelnut-enriched diet compared to that of the baseline. No changes were found in fasting levels of glucose, Apo A-1 and homocysteine between the control and hazelnut-enriched diets. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that a high-fat and high-MUFA-rich hazelnut diet was superior to a low-fat control diet because of favorable changes in plasma lipid profiles of hypercholesterolemic adult men and, thereby positively affecting the CHD risk profile. Sponsorship:

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The random urine protein-creatinine ratio was a poor predictor for significant proteinuria in patients with new-onset mild hypertension in late pregnancy.

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