Oxidative Stress, Telomere Shortening, and Apoptosis Associated to Sarcopenia and Frailty in Patients with Multimorbidity.

Background: The presence of oxidative stress, telomere shortening, and apoptosis in polypathological patients (PP) with sarcopenia and frailty remains unknown.

Methods: Multicentric prospective observational study in order to assess oxidative stress markers (catalase, glutathione reductase (GR), total antioxidant capacity to reactive oxygen species (TAC-ROS), and superoxide dismutase (SOD)), absolute telomere length (aTL), and apoptosis (DNA fragmentation) in peripheral blood samples of a hospital-based population of PP. Associations of these biomarkers to sarcopenia, frailty, functional status, and 12-month mortality were analyzed.

[Validation of the "Palliative Care Difficulties Scale (PCDS)" questionnaire in the spanish population about health professionals´ difficulties in palliative care].

Objective: Knowing the difficulties in the application of palliative care would allow us to propose improvement strategies. The objective was to determine the metric properties of the Palliative Care Difficulties Scale (PCDS) translated and adapted to Spanish.

Methods: An instrumental validation study was designed in a regional hospital and primary care centers of a health district.