Quality of assistive technologies in the home care for elderly.

Due to demographic changes, the number of elderly people who are in need of care is increasing. Assistive technologies make it possible for many elderly people to remain home despite their health conditions, which many prefer. Quality is an essential element of nursing care, and the elderly are becoming increasingly aware of this and are beginning to make high demands.

Assistive technologies along supply chains in health care and in the social services sector.

Health care systems in Austria and Slovenia are currently facing challenges due to scarce resources and demographic change which can be seen especially along the supply chains. The main objective of this paper is to present an option to improve the use of assistive technologies. An extensive literature research for the theoretic part as well as a qualitative survey for the empiric part focusing on short-term care were carried out.

Epithelial marker expression in Salzmann nodular degeneration shows characteristics of limbal transient amplifying cells and alludes to an involvement of the epithelium in its pathogenesis.

Purpose: To look at the epithelial nature of Salzmann nodular degeneration (SND) and its possible relation with the aetiology of the subepithelial collagen deposition.

Methods: Histological slides of 28 patients with SND were analysed for limbal and central corneal epithelial markers. Expression pattern of these markers in the basal layer of the epithelium was analysed and compared to the expression pattern in central corneal and limbal epithelium.

Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of irinotecan combined with capecitabine in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Background: Irinotecan (CPT-11) in combination with 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid is used successfully for first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Capecitabine (CCB) represents a very convenient alternative to 5-fluorouracil, either as single agent or in a combination of regimens acting synergistically and with the potential to further improve efficacy. Both CPT-11 and CCB need to be activated by human carboxyl esterases, therefore a probable pharmacokinetic drug interaction was checked.