OBJECTIVE To describe the outcomes and the expected postoperative course for patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders (DNR patients) who undergo emergency surgical management of bowel obstruction. DESIGN We retrospectively identified all patients who underwent emergency surgical management of intestinal obstruction and who were classified previously as DNR using the American College of S...

BACKGROUND Folate receptor (FR) is selectively amplified among human tumors, including in 70% of myeloid leukemias. FR-targeted liposomal delivery is an attractive strategy for enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer agents against FR(+) tumors. In this study, FR-targeted liposomal daunorubicin was evaluated in an FR+ L1210JF murine ascites tumor model for therapeutic efficacy in vivo....

The effect of daunorubicin (DNR) on nucleic acid synthesis was investigated in vitro in cells from an Ehrlich ascites tumor that was sensitive in vivo to DNR and in cells from a subline of the tumor in which resistance to DNR had been developed in vivo. DNR inhibited DNA and RNA synthesis in sensitive as well as in resistant cells, as determined from the incorporation of three different radioac...

he concept of cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was introduced in the 1960s in western medicine as an attempt to rescue patients who were found pulseless or apneic. Consequently, it was realized that CPR in some groups of patients did not add any meaningful benefit, but rather led to inflicting suffering to the dying patient. This led to the concept of do-not-resuscitate (DNR), which dates b...

BACKGROUND Care plans for patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders often fail to define limits other than cardiopulmonary resuscitation and fail to address other patient care needs. We studied the explicitness and comprehensiveness of care plans for patients with DNR orders and what factors were associated with this aspect of the quality of their care. METHODS A cross-sectional study was...

In this work the interactions of an anticancer drug daunorubicin (DNR) with model thiolipid layers composed of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphothioethanol (DPPTE) were investigated using Langmuir technique. The results obtained for a free drug were compared with the results recorded for DNR attached to SWCNTs as potential drug carrier. Langmuir studies of mixed DPPTE-SWCNTs-DNR monolayers s...

The effect of the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor staurosporine (ST) on the chemosensitivity of normal (colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage [CFU-GM]) and leukemic (acute myeloid leukemia-CFU [AML-CFU]) myeloid progenitors to daunorubicin (DNR) was evaluated. Primary colony inhibition assays allowed us to characterize two distinct groups of AML, a DNR-resistant group (patients no. 1 thro...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this analysis was to describe the presence and timing of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders for imminently dying patients in VA Medical Centers, and to examine factors associated with these processes. METHODS Data on DNR orders in the last 7 days of life were abstracted from the medical records of 1,069 veterans who had died in one of six VA hospitals in 2005. RESULTS...