Motoko Kanke

Assessment of Quality of Life for Cancer Patients in Field of Palliative Care-Evaluation of the Use of Japanese Version of EQ-5D Health Related Quality of Life Questionnaire

Palliative care for cancer patients should consider individual preferences with the focus on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In this regard, the recent participation of clinical pharmacists as important members of the palliative treatment team has achieved efficient management of medicines and effective symptom control.Assessment of HRQOL is necessary for improving medical services provided to patients by the palliative care team (PCT). EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) is a questionnaire for this purpose which is being widely used by clinical researchers in a variety of clinical areas, e.g. diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular diseases and rheumatic disease, and the objective of this study was to examine the possibility of the PCT using EQ-5D. Validity was assessed by reliability analysis of EQ-5D scale scores, correlation measures of pain at rest and with movement in a range of from 0 to 10, adverse effects of opioid analgesics (nausea, constipation and drowsiness) in a range from 0 to 3, total dosing days of opioid analgesics and lifespan with utility-based scores.Thirteen cancer patients in whose medication the PCT had intervened were enrolled. The Cronbach alpha score was calculated as 0.7801. Correlations were found between utility-based scores and pain at rest (r=-0.553, P 0.05).These findings suggest that EQ-5D may be adopted by the PCT in Japan for measuring utility-based HRQOL for cancer patients, though further investigation will be necessary.

Ammonia Adducts of Chloramphenicol and Chloramphenicol Palmitate

Chloramphenicol and chloramphenicol palmitate were found to form adducts with ammonia. Both ammonia adducts are so unstable at room temperature that ammonia free antibiotics are easily recovered by rapid elimination of ammonia. Particle size was reduced for chloramphenicol palmitate by repeating sorption and subsequent desorption of ammonia.