Background: Patient-reported outcome measures are used increasingly in cancer care but successful implementation is dependent on a combination of sound psychometrics, guidance on clinical

meaning and good clinical judgement. The SDI, a 21-item instrument (SDI-21) developed for use in cancer care, demonstrated good psychometric properties. Rasch analysis of the SDI resulted in a 16-item interval scale of Social Distress (SD-16), which allowed for establishment of some clinical utility guidance but further work was required to optimise meaningful interpretation in clinical practice.

Data sources: Data were pooled from three studies investigating psychometrics and clinical utility of the SDI-21.

Statistical analyses: Common factor analysis was undertaken on SD-16 items. Subscales were derived Ruboxistaurin from the resulting factors and calculated by summing the scores of associated items. Subscale reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha.

Results: There were 652 participants. A three-factor model explaining 53.3% of the variance was extracted forming C59 the basis of the subscales: Everyday living, Money matters and Self and others. Subscale

reliability was good. In a clinical setting, a 2-point change in subscale score could be interpreted as a clinically meaningful difference.

Conclusion: The development of three subscales and clinically significant difference scores for the SD-16, combined with the previously developed cut-off points, improves the clinical utility of the SDI-21 when assessing social issues in oncology care. Copyright (C) 2010 LY294002 clinical trial John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”
“Folic acid is an important vitamin (Vitamin B9) for biochemical processes such as DNA synthesis and repair. There is no

pharmacopeic method to assay this drug in capsules. It was proposed, developed and validated a method for determining the content of folic acid in capsules by reverse phase liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The method was validated for specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy and robustness. The robustness was evaluated through experimental design approach.”
“BACKGROUND:

Inappropriate daily profile of blood pressure deteriorates the clinical outcome of hypertension and increases distant cardiovascular risk. The problem is important, especially in children and adolescents in whom early intervention helps to prevent complications of hypertension such as left ventricular hypertrophy and hypertensive retinopathy.OBJECTIVES:

To assess circadian blood pressure profile and basic determinants of inappropriate daily blood pressure variability in hypertensive children.METHODS:

The project was conducted retrospectively in 106 children six to 18 years of age (mean [+/- SD] 14.9 +/- 2.5 years) with essential hypertension and no use of antihypertensive drugs.