A New Tool to Assess Quality of Life in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis or Non-specific Interstitial Pneumonia.

Background:  Quality of life (QoL) is significantly impaired in patients with pulmonary fibrosis, however reliable tools to assess QoL issues specific for this group of patients are still missing. We thus aimed to develop a new questionnaire called "Quality of life in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis" (QPF) to measure QoL in patients with fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIP).

Methods:  An item pool was created on the basis of a German expert group with support of patients suffering from pulmonary fibrosis.

[Linguistic Validation of the "German Lung Fibrosis Health Related Quality of Life Questionnaire"].

Unlabelled: Health status and quality of life are impaired in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and idiopathic non-specific interstitial fibrosis (iNSIP). In Germany exists only the K-BILD questionnaire for patients with ILD 1 in a professional translation by Kreuter et al. 2 This questionnaire focuses on the main problems in patients with progressive lung fibrosis in a limited manner.

A polycystin-2 protein with modified channel properties leads to an increased diameter of renal tubules and to renal cysts.

Mutations in the PKD2 gene cause autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease but the physiological role of polycystin-2, the protein product of PKD2, remains elusive. Polycystin-2 belongs to the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of non-selective cation channels. To test the hypothesis that altered ion channel properties of polycystin-2 compromise its putative role in a control circuit controlling lumen formation of renal tubular structures, we generated a mouse model in which we exchanged the pore loop of polycystin-2 with that of the closely related cation channel polycystin-2L1 (encoded by PKD2L1), thereby creating the protein polycystin-2poreL1.

On-section correlative light and electron microscopy of large cellular volumes using STEM tomography.

The application of both fluorescence and electron microscopy results in a powerful combination of imaging modalities called "correlative light and electron microscopy" (CLEM). Whereas conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) tomography is only able to image sections up to a thickness of ~300nm, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography at 200kV allows the analysis of sections up to a thickness of 900nm in three dimensions. In the current study we have successfully integrated STEM tomography into CLEM as demonstrated for human retinal pigment epithelial 1 (RPE1) cells expressing various fluorescent fusion proteins which were high-pressure frozen and then embedded in Lowicryl HM20.

[Patient Education Programs in Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation].

Comprehensive evidence has been provided for the significant increase in most chronic physical illnesses among children and adolescents. Therefore, early diagnosis and multimodal intervention in childhood and adolescence is required to prevent a chronic course of disease. Thus, patient education is essential for the medical child and adolescent rehabilitation.

[The neuropsychological principles of psychotherapy].

Recent advances achieved in the field of clinical neuro(bio-)psychology have been varied and impressive. Together with the related social and psychosocial aspects, they contribute to and enrich the development of new options in diagnosis and psychotherapy. Important research results are discussed here based on the examples of depression, Alzheimer's disease and self-injury, which profit greatly from neuropsychological research, especially through early detection of symptoms and prevention.

[Mental disorders in adolescence: current trends in therapy].

On the basis of the high prevalence for behavioural problems and mental disorders in adolescence and its persistence into adulthood it is tested whether and based upon which emphasis this topic is considered in the recent discussion on psychotherapy. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis is given that summarizes the issue in the 2011 and 2012 volumes of representative German child and adolescent psychological and psychiatric journals. The focus lies on conduct disorder, depression, deliberate self-harm, dissociative disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder.

LMX1B is essential for the maintenance of differentiated podocytes in adult kidneys.

Mutations of the LMX1B gene cause nail-patella syndrome, a rare autosomal-dominant disorder affecting the development of the limbs, eyes, brain, and kidneys. The characterization of conventional Lmx1b knockout mice has shown that LMX1B regulates the development of podocyte foot processes and slit diaphragms, but studies using podocyte-specific Lmx1b knockout mice have yielded conflicting results regarding the importance of LMX1B for maintaining podocyte structures. In order to address this question, we generated inducible podocyte-specific Lmx1b knockout mice.

[What does really help against cancer-related fatigue? An overview of systematic reviews].

Cancer-related fatigue, a subjective feeling of a distinctive physical, emotional and/or cognitive tiredness, is a common phenomenon in patients with cytotoxic chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Research on cancer-related fatigue has been intensified in the last decade. The objective of this work was to give an overview of the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for cancer-related fatigue.

A patient education program is effective in reducing cancer-related fatigue: a multi-centre randomised two-group waiting-list controlled intervention trial.

Objective: To evaluate a patient education program that aims at reducing perceived fatigue in cancer survivors.

Methods: In ten German centres, 261 patients with cancer-related fatigue were randomly assigned to a patient education program consisting of 6 sessions à 90 min or standard care. The primary outcome measure was cancer-related fatigue.

[Cancer-related fatigue. Psychosocial support].

Cancer-related fatigue is a subjective sensation of uncontrollable physical, emotional and/or cognitive tiredness and weakness, which occurs in the context of cancer or cancer-treatment. Cancer-related fatigue occurs at all stages of cancer treatment and can persist long after medical treatment. It profoundly affects patients' quality of life and limits their personal, social, and occupational lives.

[Cancer-related fatigue and its psychosocial burden].

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a highly prevalent and the most distressing symptom during and after treatment for cancer. It is characterized by feelings of physical and mental tiredness, weakness, and lack of energy and is not influenced by rest or sleep. Approximately 40% of patients suffer from CRF at diagnosis and nearly all patients experience fatigue during the course of cancer therapy.

[Risk and opportunities for children in problem families].

Against the background of high prevalence of behavioral problems and mental disorders in childhood and adolescence and its persistence into adulthood, the research about risk and protective factors within the family context is highly relevant. We surveyed publications of leading journals. A bibliometric analysis of major German psychological and psychiatric journals over the years 2009/10 is presented.

[Cancer-related fatigue and its psychosocial burden].

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a highly prevalent and the most distressing symptom during and after treatment for cancer. It is characterized by feelings of physical and mental tiredness, weakness, and lack of energy and is not influenced by rest or sleep. Approximately 40% of patients suffer from CRF at diagnosis and nearly all patients experience fatigue during the course of cancer therapy.

Polycystin-2 takes different routes to the somatic and ciliary plasma membrane.

Polycystin-2 (also called TRPP2), an integral membrane protein mutated in patients with cystic kidney disease, is located in the primary cilium where it is thought to transmit mechanical stimuli into the cell interior. After studying a series of polycystin-2 deletion mutants we identified two amino acids in loop 4 that were essential for the trafficking of polycystin-2 to the somatic (nonciliary) plasma membrane. However, polycystin-2 mutant proteins in which these two residues were replaced by alanine were still sorted into the cilium, thus indicating that the trafficking routes to the somatic and ciliary plasma membrane compartments are distinct.

[Chronic fatigue in cancer patients].

Background: Due to improvements in long-term survival in cancer patients, emphasis is increasingly placed on chronic symptoms such as cancer-related fatigue in patients after completion of cancer treatment. Fatigue prevalence in these patients ranges from 17% to 56%. However, there is a lack of complex treatments that take the multifactorial character of fatigue causation into account.

Doxycycline accelerates renal cyst growth and fibrosis in the pcy/pcy mouse model of type 3 nephronophthisis, a form of recessive polycystic kidney disease.

Nephronophthisis belongs to a family of recessive cystic kidney diseases and may arise from mutations in multiple genes. In this report we have used a spontaneous mouse mutant of type 3 nephronophthisis to examine whether the doxycycline-inducible synthesis of Timp-2, a natural inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases, can influence renal cyst growth in transgenic mice. Metalloproteinases may exert either a negative or a positive effect on the progression of cystic kidney disease, and we reasoned that this may be most effectively examined by using a natural inhibitor.

[Developmental model of obesity in early childhood].

Periods of heightened vulnerability to weight gain have been identified, and research supports the notion that obesity has its origins in early life. Maternal overweight, maternal smoking during pregnancy, high or low birth weight, rapid growth in early infancy, and early adiposity rebound all have been implicated in the development of obesity. This paper focuses on susceptibility to increased overweight and adiposity during the prenatal period, infancy and mid-childhood, and on how factors operating in each of these periods by their timing and duration, and also whether other co-factors are present.

[Patient education in pulmonary rehabilitation: results of an implementation study].

Patient education is considered to be a major feature of medical rehabilitation in chronic disorders. While the substantial advances in the proposition of patient education programmes in in-patient health-care remain unquestioned, there are some deficits in actually performing such programmes in clinical practice. Only few clinics adhere to the protocol and recommendations for patient education.

[Asthma among senior adults].

Elderly patients with asthma are a specific group with particular needs. These must be addressed in order to provide appropriate asthma care. Asthma causes higher morbidity and mortality rates among the elderly patients.

Development and evaluation of a cancer-related fatigue patient education program: protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) and its impact on patients' quality of life has been an increasing subject of research. However, in Germany there is a lack of evidence-based interventions consistent with the multidimensional character of fatigue. The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate a self-management program for disease-free cancer patients to cope with CRF.

Patient satisfaction with different asthma-training variants.

Objective: Information on patient satisfaction with professional health care delivery in asthmatics is rare, and the question as to how asthma education programmes affect such satisfaction has not yet been addressed.

Methods: This multi-centre study investigated three different variants of an asthma education programme for adults. Patients participated either in variant B (basic training with teacher-directed presentation, two 90 min sessions), variant C (comprehensive training, four sessions), variant D (including additional psychological components, minimum five sessions), or variant E (equivalent to B in outpatient context).

[Asthma management: what impact does knowing about asthma have on the ability of patients to self-manage the disease?].

Knowledge about asthma is frequently assumed to be a prerequisite for optimal asthma management. But the relevance of asthma knowledge for implementing changes of behaviour in the everyday life of patients, their self-management, compliance and coping remains unclear. Taken by itself, knowledge about asthma does not have a direct impact on practical skills of disease management, but it has an indirect effect on it through patients' ability to adapt to the disease.

[How do patients with COPD circumvent their disease? Psychological factors].

Chronic illness permanently changes a patient;s lifestyle and requires continuous adaptation. Chronic diseases like COPD and its treatment place extensive behavioral demands on patients. The need for precisely scheduled daily medication, regular physical exercise, visits to health care providers and monitoring are some of the demands.

Chemically defined medium environment for the development of renal stem cells into tubules.

The use of stem cells is a valuable therapeutical option for the regeneration of diseased tissues and organs. However, the involved cellular processes are hardly known. To gain detailed information about their development, a new culture technology was developed.