The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) Swallowing and Nutrition Management Guidelines for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer were developed to enable evidence-based decision-making by the Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Team (H&N MDT) regarding enteral nutrition support options. The purpose of this study was to revalidate these guidelines in a cohort of patients receiving helical intensity-modulated radiotherapy (H-IMRT) compared to a historical cohort who received primarily 3D-conformal radiotherapy. Eligible patients attending the RBWH H&N MDT between 2013 and 2014 (n = 315) were assessed by the guidelines, with high-risk patients being recommended proactive gastrostomy tube placement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To gather and understand the experience of hospital mealtimes from the perspectives of those receiving and delivering mealtime care (older inpatients, caregivers and staff) using photovoice methods to identify touchpoints and themes to inform the co-design of new mealtime interventions.
Methods: This study was undertaken on acute care wards within a single metropolitan hospital in Brisbane, Australia in 2019. Photovoice methods involved a researcher accompanying 21 participants (10 older patients, 5 caregivers, 4 nurses and 2 food service officers) during a mealtime and documenting meaningful elements using photographs and field notes.
While antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are used in the clinic, therapeutic development is hindered by the inability to assay ASO delivery and activity in vivo. Accordingly, we developed a dual-fluorescence, knockin mouse model that constitutively expresses mKate2 and an engineered EGFP that is alternatively spliced in the presence of ASO to induce expression. We first examined free ASO activity in the brain following intracerebroventricular injection revealing EGFP splice-switching is both ASO concentration and time dependent in major central nervous system cell types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α are elevated in response to psychosocial stress; however, less is known about other inflammatory markers.
Methods: We explored response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) of 16 cytokines and growth factors in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD, n = 12) vs. healthy volunteers (HV, n = 16).