The Palliative Care Needs of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Related Diseases, and Motor Neurone Disease: A Secondary Analysis of the OPTCARE Neuro Trial Data.

Long-term neurological conditions include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's-related diseases, and motor neurone disease. National and international guidelines recommend a palliative approach for advancing neurological disease, but there is little research describing and comparing the palliative care needs of these patients side by side. The aim of this study was to describe and compare the symptom burden and psychological distress of patients with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's-related diseases, and motor neurone disease.

Opioid toxicity after oxycodone/naloxone to oxycodone conversion: case series.

Combination preparations of oxycodone/naloxone are marketed to aid in the management of opioid induced bowel dysfunction, with caution advised in prescribing in cases of liver dysfunction.This case series demonstrates four cases of patients with normal liver function tests who developed significant opioid toxicity on conversion from combination oxycodone/naloxone to oxycodone at equivalent doses, necessitating significant dose reduction.In each case, a cause for intra-hepatic shunting such as cirrhosis, porto-systemic collaterals or thrombosis were identified, highlighting these as cautionary features when prescribing combination preparations of oxycodone/naloxone and the possible need for dose reduction if converting to oxycodone.

Is Inpatient Hospice Care Clinically Effective? Using Phase of Illness to Evaluate Care Outcomes for Patients Admitted to a Specialist Palliative Care Unit in Ireland.

In health care, clinical effectiveness involves evaluating the degree to which clinical interventions achieve beneficial patient and caregiver outcomes. To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of care in a specialist palliative care unit (SPCU) in Ireland, including an analysis of the temporal relationship among admission, Phase of Illness and patient and family distress. A consecutive case series with prospectively collected admission data ( = 400).

Ia diastolic dysfunction: an echocardiographic grade.

Objective: To demonstrate that a distinct group of patients with Grade Ia diastolic dysfunction who do not conform to present ASE/ESE diastolic grading exists.

Method And Results: Echocardiographic and demographic data of the Grade Ia diastolic dysfunction were extracted and compared with that of Grades I and II in 515 patients. The mean of age of the cohort was 75 ± 9 years and body mass index did not differ significantly between the 3 groups (P = 0.