Medication adherence in leukemia children receiving home-based treatment and its related factors.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate home-based medication adherence in children with acute leukemia and its related factors. METHODS: We examined 132 children with acute leukemia in a tertiary pediatric hospital in Chongqing. A general questionnaire, the MMAS-8 (the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale), SEAMS (Self-efficacy for Appropriate Medication Use Scale), and a multifactorial logistic regression model were used to analyze the factors related to drug adherence of the children. RESULTS: 54.55% of patients showed good medication adherence, while 50.76% either forgot a dose or administered an incorrect dose. The average score on the Self-Efficacy for Appropriate Medication Use Scale (SEAMS) was 32.47.61. The logistic regression analysis revealed that a SEAMS score, the occupation of caregivers, and the patient's age were predictors of medication adherence among pediatric leukemia patients (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The home-based medication adherence in children with acute leukemia was not favorable. Patients with low SEAMS scores, farmers serving as caregivers, and children under the age of three should arouse more attention. It is expected to strengthen the confidence of patient families in medication by emphasizing the development of their relationships with healthcare professionals. Awareness of breakthroughs in leukemia home-based medication management systems by utilizing Internet technology.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the supportive care needs survey for caregivers of children with Paediatric cancer (SCNS-C-Ped-C).

AIM: To revise the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Partners and Caregivers of Cancer Patients (SCNS-P&C) and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese Version of the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Caregivers of Children with Paediatric Cancer (SCNS-C-Ped-C) in caregivers of children with paediatric cancer. DESIGN: A cross sectional design was used. METHODS: In this methodological research, the reliability and validity of the SCNS-C-Ped-C were measured by a questionnaire survey among 336 caregivers of children with paediatric cancer in China. The construct validity was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency was examined by Cronbach's alpha, split-half reliability, and corrected item-to-total correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The exploratory factor analysis revealed six factors consist of: Healthcare and Informational Needs, Daily Care and Communication Needs, Psychological and Spiritual Needs, Medical Service Needs, Economic Needs, and Emotional Needs, explaining 65.615% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.968 at full scale and 0.603-0.952 on the six domains. The split-half reliability coefficient was 0.883 at full scale and 0.659-0.931 on the six domains. CONCLUSIONS: The SCNS-C-Ped-C demonstrated both reliability and validity. It can be used to evaluate multi-dimensional supportive care needs for caregivers of children with paediatric cancer in China.

The demands of caregivers of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in different therapy stages and the exploration of possible interventions: A longitudinal investigation survey at a Tertiary Medical Institution.

AIM: To describe the demands of family caregivers of children with ALL at different therapy stages and explore the possible interventions to address their care demands. DESIGN: A longitudinal investigation study. METHOD: A total of 157 family caregivers of children treated in the Haematological oncology ward of a tertiary medical hospital in China between March and December in 2020 were included in this study. The Comprehensive Needs of Caregivers of Cancer Patients and Families Taking Care of Children Scale was used to investigate the family caregivers of children with ALL. The family caregivers completed the questionnaire accompanied by a researcher within two weeks of each therapy stage, which included the induction, consolidation and continuation stages. RESULTS: Family caregivers of children with ALL had many demands that varied based on the stage of therapy. Family caregivers in the induction therapy stage needed more information about their children's disease, having the highest score in information demands (35.60 ± 5.85). The family caregivers in the consolidation therapy stage needed more information on symptom management and socio-economic support, having the highest score in care and support demands (36.14 ± 5.12). The family caregivers in the continuation therapy stage (including interim and maintenance therapy stages) focused more on their own and the children's social adaptation, so they scored the highest for psychosocial demands (35.96 ± 5.69). CONCLUSION: Family caregivers of children with ALL had different demands that varied based on the stage of therapy. Medical personnel should be aware of the primary needs of family caregivers at different therapy stages to provide early interventions and support based on their demands, ultimately improving the physical and mental condition of family caregivers and the quality of care.

Chinese parents' caregiving ability for children with haematological malignancies: A latent class analysis.

AIM: The aim of this study was to identify unobserved subgroups of Chinese parents' caregiving ability for children with haematological malignancies and examine the associations of the latent class membership with individual characteristics. DESIGN: A multicentre cross-sectional survey study was conducted. METHODS: A total of 392 parents of children with haematological malignancies in China were surveyed with the Hematologic Malignancies' Family Caregiver Skills Scale and a study-specific demographic information questionnaire. Latent class analysis (LCA) and multinomial logistic regression model were applied in data analysis. RESULTS: LCA results suggested that there existed three distinct a priori unknown classes of parents of children with haematological malignancies in regard to caregiving ability: Class 1-"high caregiving ability" class (n = 131, 33.4%), Class 2-"medium caregiving ability" class (n = 170, 43.4%) and Class 3-"low caregiving ability" class (n = 91, 23.2%). Socio-demographics and clinical characteristics had significant associations with the latent class membership.

In vivo antitumor effects of carboxymethyl chitosan-conjugated triptolide after oral administration.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate in vitro and in vivo antitumor efficacy and subacute toxicity of triptolide (TP) prodrug, a conjugate between TP and carboxymethyl chitosan (CC). The CCTP conjugate contained 4∼ wt % TP and displayed excellent aqueous solubility (5 mg/mL) as compared to the native TP (17 µg/mL). In vitro cytotoxicity of CCTP conjugate was evaluated by CCK8 assay against human pancreatic cancer (PC) cell lines, showing comparable the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values to the parent TP. In a mouse model of PC (BxPC-3), the CCTP conjugate administered orally (at dose levels as low as 0.2 mg TP equivalent/kg) showed comparable efficacy in reducing or eliminating xenograft tumor to the same dose of TP, but exhibited much lower subacute toxicity as seen in body weight loss and hematological toxicity.

New procedures for arsenic speciation: a review.

Considerable analytical methods have been developed for arsenic speciation in the last 5 years, the details of these new arsenic speciation procedures are thus summarized in present mini review. The performances of various sample pretreatment techniques including solid phase extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, hydride generation, liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, which offer effective preconcentration/separation and eventually contribute greatly to excellent sensitivity and selectivity in arsenic speciation when coupling with suitable detection mode, are discussed and compared thoroughly. High-performance liquid chromatography coupling with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and hydride generation atomic spectrometry are proved to be the most powerful hyphenated methodologies for arsenic speciation in environmental and biological matrices.

Nickel nanoparticle decorated graphene for highly selective isolation of polyhistidine-tagged proteins.

Nickel nanoparticle decorated graphene (GP-Ni) is prepared by one-pot hydrothermal reduction of graphene oxide and nickel cations by hydrazine hydrate in the presence of poly(sodium-p-styrenesulfonate) (PSS). The GP-Ni hybrid is characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, XPS, Raman and FT-IR spectra, demonstrating the formation of poly-dispersed nickel nanoparticles with an average size of 83 nm attached on the surface of graphene sheets. The GP-Ni hybrid exhibits ferromagnetic behavior with a magnetization saturation of 31.1 emu g(-1) at 10,000 Oersted (Oe). The GP-Ni also possesses favorable stability in aqueous medium and rapid magnetic response to an external magnetic field. These make it a novel magnetic adsorbent for the separation/isolation of His6-tagged recombinant proteins from a complex sample matrix (cell lysate). The targeted protein species is captured onto the surface of the GP-Ni hybrid via specific metal affinity force between polyhistidine groups and nickel nanoparticles. The SDS-PAGE assay indicates highly selective separation of His6-tagged Smt A from cell lysate. The GP-Ni hybrid displays favorable performance on the separation/isolation of His6-tagged recombinant proteins with respect to the commercial NTA-Ni(2+) column.