Rabbit Anti-Human HARS Polyclonal Antibody

Our aim in this observational study was to evaluate the feasibility of a multiphasic screening project for the detection and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders among cancer patients in a natural setting. One hundred sixty-five patients with cancer, consecutively admitted to the Oncology Division of San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital, were recruited to the study. All patients had solid tumors; the majority of them were. colon, breast, and lung cancers. All patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Patients screened as positive were administered the following instruments by a psychiatrist. the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), and a validated scale for the rapid dimensional assessment of psychopathology (SVARAD). The BDI, HARS, and SVARAD were administered again at 4 and 10 weeks to all treated patients. Out of 45 patients administered the SCID-I, 37 had a mood or anxiety disorder. Adjustment disorders were identified in 20 patients, depressive disorders in 14, and anxiety disorders in three patients. Most patients were prescribed psychotropic medications: mirtazapine was prescribed to 15 patients, citalopram to 13 patients, and escitalopram to four patients. A significant improvement in symptoms of depression and anxiety was observed on all measures (P <.001). Although the design of the study prevents any firm conclusions about effectiveness, this study suggests that including psychiatric expertise in an oncology division is feasible and may lead to improved detection and treatment of psychiatric disorders among cancer patients. Further randomized trials are needed to elaborate on our findings.

Neointimal hyperplasia limits the long-term patency of saphenous vein grafts (SVGs), but is notably absent from most internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a local endothelial and vascular smooth muscle mitogen known to be involved in the pathogenesis of neointimal hyperplasia. This study used an animal model to compare the number of available high-affinity (HAR) and low-affinity (LAR) bFGF receptors in SVGs and IMA grafts and to determine whether distention injury causes an increase in receptor availability. The IMA and SVG specimens were harvested from 12 dogs and distended at 25 or 200 mm Hg for 15 minutes, and then the bFGF receptor uptake was measured in them using iodine 125-labeled bFGF. In the IMA conduits distended at low pressure, there were 2.54 +/- 0.10 (mean +/- standard error of the mean) HARs per mm(2) of intimal surface area available and 5.19 +/- 0.40 LARs per mm(2). High-pressure distention significantly (p < 0.001) increased the number of available HARs to 5.06 +/- 0.27 per mm(2) and of LARs to 7.27 +/- 0.042 per mm(2). At low pressure, the SVGs had significantly (p < 0.001) more HARs (9.14 +/- 0.84 per mm(2)) and LARs (18.2 +/- 0.57 per mm(2)) available than did the IMA conduits, and high pressure significantly (p < 0.001) increased the number of HARs available in SVGs to 24.1 +/- 2.43 per mm(2) and the number of LARs to 44.7 +/- 2.34 per mm(2). These results demonstrate that there is a significantly higher number of available bFGF receptors per unit of surface area in dog SVGs than IMA grafts. High-pressure distention further increases the differences in the number of available bFGF receptors between SVGs and IMA grafts (p < 0.001). These findings suggest a newly recognized mechanism that may contribute to the increased intimal hyperplasia found in implanted SVGs but not IMAs.