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Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka patienters upplevelser av att leva med KOL samt identifiera eventuella faktorer som underlättar det dagliga livet. För att göra detta genomfördes en litteraturstudie där artiklar analyserades efter Carnevalis (1999) Dagligt Liv ↔ Funktionellt Hälsotillstånd-modell. Patienter upplever svårigheter, krav, i det dagliga livet relaterat till hygien, måltids-situationer och sociala situationer. Patienterna får anpassa sin aktivitetsnivå till sitt aktuella hälsotillstånd. Underlättande faktorer, inre resurser sprungna ur patienter-na själv och yttre resurser, hjälper till att balansera upp kraven i det dagliga livet. Genom att ytterligare stärka patientens inre och yttre resurser anses livskvaliteten hos KOL-patienten förbättras genom att högre nivåer av balans uppnås. / The aim of this study was to explore patients’ experiences of living with COPD and to identify factors to facilitate daily life. To do this a literature review was performed where articles were analysed through Carnevali’s (1999) Daily Life ↔ Functional Health status-model. Patients’ experience difficulties, demands, in daily life related to hygiene, meal-related situations and social situa-tions. Patients need to adapt their level of activity to their current health status. Facilitating factors, inner resources from the patient him/herself and outer resources helps to balance the demands in daily life. Strengthening the patients’ inner and outer resources is believed to increase the COPD patients’ quality of life through higher levels of balance.

Individer med kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom (KOL) kämpar varje dag att undvika andfåddhet och andnöd. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att undersöka kroniskt obstruktiva lungsjuka patienters upplevelse av livskvalitet, med särskilt fokus på andfåddhet och social isolering. Metodavsnittet beskrivs genom Goodmans sju steg (1996). Resultatet presenteras i fyra huvudteman: Andfåddhet och andnöd, livskvalitet och det dagliga livet, social isolering och miljön och stigmatisering och samhället. I resultatet framkommer det att andfåddhet är det mest besvärande symtomen, vädret och miljön påverkar individernas förmåga att röra sig utomhus. Slutsats Individer med KOL är tvungna att strukturera upp sin vardag för att kunna fungera i det dagliga livet. / Individuals suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) struggle every day to avoid breathlessness and becoming out of breath. The aim with this literature review is to examine chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient’s experiences of quality of life, focusing on breathlessness and social isolation. The method guidance is described through Goodman’s seven steps (1996). The result is presented in four themes: out of breath and breathlessness, quality of life and the daily living, social isolation and the environment, and stigma and society. The result that emerged was that breathlessness is the most troublesome symptoms and the weather and the environment affected the individual’s ability to move about outdoors. The conclusion was that individuals suffering from COPD had to organise their daily life to be able to make it through the day.

Ever increasing applications of nanomaterials (materials with one or more dimension less than 100 nm) has raised awareness of their potential genotoxicity. They have unique physico¿chemical properties and so could have unpredictable effects. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are widely used in a number of commercial products. There are published studies indicating that some forms of these compounds may be photo-clastogenic in mammalian cells. What has not been investigated before is the effect of nanoparticles from these compounds in human germ cells. Thus the present study has examined their effects in the presence and absence of UV light in human sperm and compared responses to those obtained with human lymphocytes using the Comet assay to measure DNA damage. The effect of nanoparticles (40-70nm range) was studied in human sperm and lymphocytes in the dark, after pre-irradiation with UV and simultaneous irradiation with UV. The studies do provide some evidence that there are photo-genotoxic events in sperm and lymphocytes in the absence of overt toxicity. The cytotoxic and genotoxic potentials of ZnO and TiO2 as well as their effect on phosphotyrosine expression, were examined in the human epithelial cervical carcinoma cells (Hela cells). This was done to try and determine the underlying molecular events resulting from their exposure to ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles occurring at the same time as DNA is damaged. Concentration- and time-dependent cytotoxicity, and an increase in DNA and cytogenetic damage with increasing nanoparticle concentrations were reported in this study. Mainly for zinc oxide, genotoxicity was clearly associated with an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation. Nanotechnology has raced ahead of nanotoxicology and little is known of the effects of nanoparticles in human systems, let alone in diseased individuals. Therefore, the effects of TiO2 nanoparticles in peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with respiratory diseases (lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma) were compared with those in healthy individuals using genotoxic endpoints to determine whether there are any differences in sensitivity to nano-chemical insult between the patient and control groups. The results have shown concentration dependent genotoxic effects of TiO2 in both respiratory patient and control groups in the Comet assay and an increasing pattern of cytogenetic damage measured in the micronucleus assay without being statistically significant except when compared with the untreated controls of healthy individuals. Furthermore, modulation of ras p21 expression was investigated. Regardless of TiO2 treatment, only lung cancer and COPD patients expressed measurable ras p21 levels that showed modulation as the result of nanoparticle treatment. Results have suggested that both ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles can be genotoxic over a range of concentrations without either photoa-ctivation or being cytotoxic.

Bakgrund: Kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom (KOL) är en folksjukdom och många miljoner personer lever med sjukdomen globalt. För att patienter med KOL ska uppnå en god livskvalité genom minskade sjukhusinläggningar krävs en god palliativ vårdinsats som ska ges i hemmet. Distriktssköterskor inom kommunal hemsjukvård har en central roll inom palliativ vård. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hinder för distriktssköterskans palliativa vårdinsatser till patienter med KOL i hemmet. Metod: Studien var en systematisk litteraturstudie baserat på tio artiklar. Sökningen, granskningen och analysen av samtliga artiklarna gjordes enligt Bettany-Saltikov & McSherrys modell. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fyra kategorier: bristande kunskap och kompetens, kommunikationsproblem och teamsamarbete, initiering av palliativ vård och brister i organisationen inom hemsjukvård. Slutsats: Ökad kompetens genom kunskapsutveckling, välstrukturerad organisation inom hemsjukvård såsom personalbemanning, och multidisciplinär teamssamverkan ger distriktssköterskor goda förutsättningar att klara av palliativa vårdinsatser till KOL-patienter i hemsjukvården. I resultatet framkommer att dessa viktiga faktorer brister, vilket förhindrar distriktssköterskor att ge en god palliativ vård till patienter med KOL. Förslag på vidare forskning är en intervjustudie med distriktssköterskor inom hemsjukvården samt med deras chefer med frågor kring kunskap, kompetens, utbildning och organisation. / Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a public health disease that affects millions of people globally. To improve quality of life with reduced hospital admissions, palliative care at home are important for patients with COPD. District nurses in municipal home care have a central role in palliative care. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe obstacles to the district nurse’s palliative care efforts to patients with COPD at home. Method: The study was a systematic literature review based on ten articles. The search, review and analysis of all the articles was done according to Bettany-Saltikov & McSherry’s model. Results: The results revealed four categories: lack of knowledge and competence, communication problems and team collaboration, initiation of palliative care and shortcomings in the organization in home care. Conclusion: Increased competence through knowledge development, well-structured organization in home care such as staffing, and multidisciplinary team collaboration give district nurses good conditions to cope with palliative care efforts to COPD patients in home care. The results show that these important factors are lacking, which prevents district nurses from providing good palliative care to patients with COPD at home. Suggestion for further research explore district nurse´s knowledge and understanding through an interview method.

Drug repositioning can save considerable time and resources and significantly speed up the drug development process. The increasing availability of drug action and disease-associated transcriptome data makes it an attractive source for repositioning studies. Here, we have developed a transcriptome-guided approach for drug/biologics repositioning based on multi-layer self-organizing maps (ml-SOM). It allows for analyzing multiple transcriptome datasets by segmenting them into layers of drug action- and disease-associated transcriptome data. A comparison of expression changes in clusters of functionally related genes across the layers identifies “drug target” spots in disease layers and evaluates the repositioning possibility of a drug. The repositioning potential for two approved biologics drugs (infliximab and brodalumab) confirmed the drugs’ action for approved diseases (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease for infliximab and psoriasis for brodalumab). We showed the potential efficacy of infliximab for the treatment of sarcoidosis, but not chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Brodalumab failed to affect dysregulated functional gene clusters in Crohn’s disease (CD) and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA), clearly indicating that it may not be effective in the treatment of these diseases. In conclusion, ml-SOM offers a novel approach for transcriptome-guided drug repositioning that could be particularly useful for biologics drugs.

Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) is common in patients with muscle wasting-related chronic diseases. We explored the hypothesis that the use of PPIs may contribute to a reduction in muscle mass and function in these patients. Literature indicates that a PPI-induced reduction in acidity of the gastrointestinal tract can decrease the absorption of, amongst others, magnesium. Low levels of magnesium are associated with impaired muscle function. This unwanted side-effect of PPIs on muscle function has been described in different disease backgrounds. Furthermore, magnesium is necessary for activation of vitamin D. Low vitamin D and magnesium levels together can lead to increased inflammation involved in muscle wasting. In addition, PPI use has been described to alter the microbiota’s composition in the gut, which might lead to increased inflammation. However, PPIs are often provided together with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which are anti-inflammatory. In the presence of obesity, additional mechanisms could further contribute to muscle alterations. In conclusion, use of PPIs has been reported to contribute to muscle function loss. Whether this will add to the risk factor for development of muscle function loss in patients with chronic disease needs further investigation.

For the past few decades, the popularity of graphene oxide (GO) nanomaterials (NMs) has increased exceedingly due to their biomedical applications in drug delivery of anti-cancer drugs. Their unique physicochemical properties such as high surface area and good surface chemistry with unbound surface functional groups (e.g. hydroxyl - OH, carboxyl /ketone C=O, epoxy/alkoxy C-O, aromatic group C=C, etc) which enable covalent bonding with organic molecules (e.g. RNA, DNA) make GO NMs as excellent candidates in drug delivery nanocarriers. Despite the overwhelming biomedical applications, there are concerns about their genotoxicity on human DNA. Published genotoxicity studies on GO NMs were performed using non-commercial GO with 2-3 layers of GO sheets, synthesized in various laboratories with the potential for inter-laboratory variabilities. However, what has not been studied before is the effects of the commercial GO (15-20 sheets; 4-10% edge-oxidized; 1 mg/mL) in vitro on DNA damage in human whole blood and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from real-life patients diagnosed with chronic pulmonary diseases [asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer], and genotoxic endpoints compared with those from healthy control individuals to determine whether there are any differences in GO sensitivity. Thus, in the present study, we had characterized GO NMs using Zetasizer Nano for Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and zeta potential (ZP) in the aqueous solution, and electron microscopy using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) in the dry state, respectively. Cytotoxicity studies were conducted on human PBL from healthy individuals and patients (asthma, COPD, and lung cancer) using the Methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Neutral Red Uptake (NRU) assays, respectively. The genotoxicity (DNA damage) and cytogenetic effects (chromosome aberration parameters) induced by GO NMs on human whole blood from healthy individuals and patients were studied using the Alkaline Comet Assay and Cytokinesis-blocked Micronucleus (CBMN) assay, respectively. Our results showed concentration-dependent increases in cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and chromosome aberrations, with blood samples from COPD and lung cancer patients being more sensitive to DNA damage insults compared with asthma patients and healthy control individuals. Furthermore, the relative gene and protein expressions of TP53, CDKN1A/p21, and BCL-2 relative to GAPDH on human PBL were studied using the Reverse Transcription Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western Blot techniques, respectively. Our results have shown altered gene and protein expression levels. Specifically, GO-induced cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and micronuclei aberrations were associated with TP53 upregulation - a biomarker of DNA damage - in both patients and healthy individuals. These effects show that GO NMs have promising roles in drug delivery applications when formulated to deliver drug payload to COPD and cancer cells. However, the fact that cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, chromosome instability, and gene/protein expressions - biomarkers of cancer risk - were observed in healthy individuals are of concern to public health, especially in occupational exposures at micro levels at the workplace.

Rökning är ett utbrett samhällsproblem världen över och sjukdomar relaterade till rökning leder till mer än åtta miljoner dödsfall årligen. Effektiva rökavvänjningsmetoder spelar därför en viktig roll i samhället då de besparar samhället sjukvårdskostnader och främjar folkhälsan. I detta arbete genomförs en hälsoekonomisk utvärdering av ett SMS-baserat stöd för rökavvänjning. Syftet med arbetet är att fylla en kunskapslucka vad det gäller kostnadseffektivitet av digitala rökavvänjningsinsatser och samtidigt ge ett underlag tillbeslutsfattare som ansvarar för att prioritera folkhälsofrämjande insatser. Den hälsoekonomiska utvärderingen använder sig av kostnadseffektivitetsanalys som metod och baseras på en klinisk studie, där långsiktiga kostnader och hälsoeffekter skattas med hjälpav en beslutsanalytisk modell primärt baserad på en Markovmodell. De tre vanligaste följdsjukdomarna av rökning; KOL (kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom), lungcancer och hjärt- och kärlsjukdom modelleras mot bakgrund av hur många som slutar röka med hjälp av SMS-stödet. Data från olika källor används i modellen och i de fall data saknas görs antaganden baserade på tidigare studier för att kunna skatta kostnader och hälsoeffekter. Arbetet påvisar att en implementering av ett SMS-baserat stöd skulle generera ökade hälsoeffekter till lägre kostnader i jämförelse med att inte implementera ett sådant stöd. Resultatet från grundscenariot visar att interventionen skulle leda till kostnadsbesparingar på 63 539 kr per individ som tar del av interventionen och 0,30 vunna år i perfekt hälsa, sett över ett livstidsperspektiv. Resultaten bör tolkas med viss försiktighet då de är förknippade med osäkerheter, men kan användas som en del av det underlag beslutsfattare behöver för att fattabeslut om hur hälso- och sjukvårdens resurser ska prioriteras. Trots osäkerheterna i underlagetförefaller ett SMS-baserat stöd för rökavvänjning ha positiva hälsoeffekter och samtidigt spara resurser och därmed framstår metoden som en potentiellt viktig insats i framtida folkhälsoarbete. / Smoking is a globally widespread societal problem and diseases related to smoking account for more than eight million deaths annually. Effective smoking cessation methods therefore play an important role in society as they save society´s healthcare resources and promote public health. In this work, a health economic evaluation of an SMS-based smoking cessation is performed. The purpose of the work is to fill a knowledge gap in terms of cost-effectiveness of digital smoking cessation initiatives and at the same time provide a basis for decision-makers who are responsible for prioritizing public health promotion initiatives. The health economic evaluation uses cost-effectiveness analysis as a method and is based on a clinical study, where long-term costs and health effects are estimated using a decision-analytical model with a Markov structure. The three most common sequelae of smoking; COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), lung cancer and cardiovascular disease are modeled based on how many people stop smoking with the help of the SMS support. Data from different sources are used in the model and required assumptions based on previous studies are used to be able to estimate costs and health effects. The work shows that the implementation of an SMS-based support would generate increased health effects at lower costs in comparison with not implementing such support. The results from the basic scenario show that the intervention would lead to cost savings of SEK 63,539 per individual who takes part in the intervention and a gain in 0.30 years in full health, seen over a lifetime perspective. The results should be interpreted with some caution as they are associated with uncertainties but can be used as part of the basis on which decision-makers need to make decisions about how health care resources should be prioritized. Despite these uncertainties the SMS-based support for smoking cessation appears to save resources and lead to positive health effects and the method should be considered a potentially important addition in future public health policy.

Bakgrund: Kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom är en folkhälsosjukdom som drabbar miljontals människor och är det tredje vanligaste dödsorsaken i världen. För att kunna bemöta patienterna som drabbas av sjukdom krävs stort ansvar av sjukvården och främst sjuksköterskor som har en betydande roll av att främja hälsa och minska symtomlidande. Patienter behöver kontinuerlig uppföljning och utbildning kring sjukdomen för att kunna få en förståelse av innebörden samt utveckla egenvårdsåtgärder. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa individens upplevelser av att leva med kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom. Metod: Litteraturöversikt som utgick från 13 kvalitativa originalartiklar. Resultat: I resultatet presenterades patientupplevelsen med hjälp av övergripande teman som: “fysiska utmaningar”, “psykologiska utmaningar hos patienter med KOL", “Självkänsla och Stigma”, “Acceptans och Hanteringsstrategier” samt “Förlust och begränsningar”.   Slutsats: Litteraturöversikten om kroniskt obstruktiv lungsjukdom (KOL) visar komplexa fysiska och psykologiska utmaningar. Fysiska hinder som trötthet och andnöd påverkar vardagslivet, medan psykologiska utmaningar som självkänsla och stigma kan leda till depression och social isolering. Vikten av socialt och psykologiskt stöd framhävs för att komplettera medicinsk vård och underlätta hanteringen av KOL:s påverkan på livskvaliteten. / Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a public health ailment affecting millions of people and is the third leading cause of death worldwide. To effectively address patients affected by the disease, a significant responsibility falls on healthcare, particularly on nurses who play a crucial role in promoting health and alleviating symptoms. Patients require continuous monitoring and education about the disease to gain an understanding of its implications and develop self-care measures. Aim: The aim was to illustrate individuals' experiences of living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Method: Literature review based on 13 qualitative original articles. Results: In the results, patient experiences were presented using overarching themes such as: “physical challenges”, “psychological challenges in COPD patients”, “Self-esteem and Stigma”, “Acceptance and Coping Strategies” and “Loss and Limitation”. Conclusions: The literature review on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) highlights complex physical and psychological challenges. Physical barriers, such as fatigue and breathlessness, impact daily activities, while psychological challenges, including self-esteem and stigma, may lead to depression and social isolation. The importance of social and psychological support is emphasized to complement medical care and facilitate coping with the impact of COPD on quality of life.