NRT

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the effect of baseline attitudes toward nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) on its actual adherence in a smoking cessation intervention. PURPOSE: This study (i) examined the predictability of baseline variables (quantitative data) on NRT adherence and (ii) explored the congruence of participants' statements about NRT products (qualitative data) during counseling sessions with their baseline attitudes. METHODS: This is a mixed-methods research study using a convergent parallel design...

MR perfusion imaging is important in the clinical evaluation of primary brain tumors, particularly in differentiating between true progression and treatment-induced change. The utility of velocity-selective ASL (VSASL) compared to the more commonly utilized DSC perfusion technique was assessed in routine clinical surveillance MR exams of 28 patients with high-grade gliomas at 1.5T. Using RANO criteria, patients were assigned to two groups, one with detectable residual/recurrent tumor ("RT", n = 9), and the other with no detectable residual/recurrent tumor ("NRT", n = 19)...

A California-sponsored, 18-month, tobacco-free intervention in residential substance use disorder (SUD) programs was associated with increases in tobacco-free grounds and tobacco-related client services. The current study examined whether positive results would be replicated in 11 programs participating subsequently. Program directors ( N  = 11) completed surveys of tobacco-related policies pre- and post-intervention. Pre- ( n  = 163) and post-intervention ( n  = 128) cross-sectional staff surveys examined tobacco-related training, beliefs, practices, smoking policy, and smoking status...

Nicotine is universally recognized as the primary addictive substance fuelling the continued use of tobacco products, which are responsible for over 8 million deaths annually. In recent years, the popularity of newer recreational nicotine products has surged drastically in many countries, raising health and safety concerns. For decades, the tobacco industry has promoted the myth that nicotine is as harmless as caffeine. Nonetheless, evidence shows that nicotine is far from innocuous, even on its own. In fact, numerous studies have demonstrated that nicotine can harm multiple organs, including the respiratory and cardiovascular systems...

PURPOSE: Esophageal cancer is among the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Patients presenting with localized and loco-regionally advanced cancer without distant metastases have reasonable survival with multimodality management. Adequate and comprehensive staging is the backbone for proper selection of patients fit for curative treatment. Positron emission tomography (PET) in combination with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) is utilized as the standard staging modality...

IMPORTANCE: Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are often used by smokers as an aid to stopping smoking, but evidence is limited regarding their efficacy compared with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and no evidence is available on how their efficacy compares with that of varenicline. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether ECs are superior to NRT and noninferior to varenicline in helping smokers quit. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a randomized clinical trial conducted at 7 sites in China and including participants who were smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day and motivated to quit, not using stop-smoking medications or EC, and willing to use any of the study products...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of radiotherapy and its association with second primary malignancies (SPMs) risk in major salivary gland carcinomas (MSGCs) patients. METHODS: Cohort 1 included 7274 surgically treated MSGC patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, assessing the effectiveness of radiotherapy. Cohort 2 (n = 4213) comprised patients with ≥5-year survival in Cohort 1 to study SPMs. RESULTS: Radiotherapy decreased overall survival in MSGCs patients, but improved it in high-grade MSGCs...

The purpose of this research was to construct a Markov model of digital therapeutics to predict the lifetime costs and consequences that would be incurred by a hypothetical group of adult smokers in Korea who only made a single attempt to stop smoking. To determine the efficacy of DTx, we created an annual cycle Markov model. The result shows that the NRT strategy is determined as the dominant strategy. Digital therapeutics acts as a complement to pharmacotherapy and is a low-cost option.

Cigarette smoking poses various health risks, such as increasing the susceptibility to respiratory infections, contributing to osteoporosis, causing reproductive issues, delaying postoperative recovery, promoting ulcer formation and heightening the risk of diabetes. While many harmful effects of smoking are attributed to other cigarette components, it is nicotine's pharmacological effects that underlie tobacco addiction. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) aims to alleviate the urge to smoke and mitigate physiological and psychomotor withdrawal symptoms by delivering nicotine...

BACKGROUND: Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and short messaging service (SMS)-based tobacco cessation interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing tobacco use in many populations, but evidence is needed on which tailored treatments are most efficacious in meeting the complex medical and psychosocial factors confronting people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper describes the protocol of a study to test the efficacy of both NRT and a tailored SMS-based tobacco use cessation intervention among PLWH in Uganda and Zambia...

AIM: To evaluate the alterations of the retinal microvasculature and foveal avascular zone in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A). METHODS: A retrospective study of PD patients examined in the Ophthalmology Department of the General Hospital of Athens, "Georgios Gennimatas" from March 2021 to March 2022 was conducted. Totally 44 patients with PD were included and 18 healthy controls were examined, hence a total of 124 eyes were enrolled in the study...

AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine the safety of e-cigarettes (EC) and nicotine patches (NRT) when used to help pregnant smokers quit. DESIGN: A recent trial of EC versus NRT reported safety outcomes in the randomized arms. We conducted a further analysis based on product use. SETTING: Twenty-three hospitals in England and a stop-smoking service in Scotland took part. PARTICIPANTS: The participants comprised 1140 pregnant smokers...

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to: (i) provide up-to-date estimates of how changes in prevalence of e-cigarette use have been associated with changes in smoking cessation activities and use of licensed treatments among smokers in England; and (ii) explore any changes in these associations over time. METHODS: Data were aggregated quarterly on 67,548 past-year smokers between Q1-2007 and Q4-2022. Explanatory variables were prevalence of (i) current e-cigarette use among smokers and (ii) e-cigarette use during a quit attempt...

High-affinity nitrate transporters (NRT) are key components for nitrogen (N) acquisition and distribution within plants. However, insights on these transporters in wheat are scarce. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the NRT2 and NRT3 gene families, where the aim is to shed light on their functionality and to evaluate their responses to N availability. A total of 53 NRT2s and 11 NRT3s were identified in the bread wheat genome, and these were grouped into different clades and homoeologous subgroups...

In the broad context of Dalton's atomic hypothesis and subsequent classical vs. quantum understanding of macroscopic materials, we show how Pauling's resonance-type conceptions, as quantified in natural resonance theory (NRT) analysis of modern wavefunctions, can be modified to unify description of interatomic interactions from the Lewis-like limit of localized e-pair covalency in molecules to the extreme delocalized limit of supramolecular "soft matter" aggregation. Such "NRT-centric" integration of NRT bond orders for hard- and soft-matter interactions is illustrated with application to a long-predicted and recently synthesized organometallic sandwich-type complex ("diberyllocene") that exhibits bond orders ranging from the soft limit ( b BeC ≈ 0...

BACKGROUND: Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are handheld electronic vaping devices which produce an aerosol by heating an e-liquid. People who smoke, healthcare providers and regulators want to know if ECs can help people quit smoking, and if they are safe to use for this purpose. This is a review update conducted as part of a living systematic review. OBJECTIVES: To examine the safety, tolerability and effectiveness of using electronic cigarettes (ECs) to help people who smoke tobacco achieve long-term smoking abstinence, in comparison to non-nicotine EC, other smoking cessation treatments and no treatment...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Smoking is considered the main cause of preventable death world-wide. This study aimed to review the efficacy and safety of cytisine for smoking cessation. METHODS: This review included an exhaustive search of databases to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in health centers of any level with smokers of any age or gender investigating the effects of cytisine at standard dosage versus placebo, varenicline or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)...

Smoking is highly prevalent in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA), leading to detrimental effects in different tissues. We examined the effects of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) on smoking cessation and vascular health. From December 2019 to October 2021, we prospectively enrolled PLHA who were actively smoking. The primary outcome was endothelial function measured by brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). We evaluated the percent change in FMD compared to the baseline measure (Δ%FMD) to detect improvements among participants who quit smoking...

INTRODUCTION: The frequency with which people change from one medical treatment to another partly reflects satisfaction with the initial intervention. In this secondary analysis of observational data, we explore switch rates for short-acting nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, which differ in mode of use, rapidity of action, and adverse effect profiles. METHODS: We analyzed data from 46,882 participants in the Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients program who received short-acting NRT (gum, lozenge, oral spray, or inhaler) at their initial visit...

Tobacco smoking has been a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Smoking is a chronic relapsing disease and pharmacotherapy is a main component of smoking cessation. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and smoking both increase the risk of CVD and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. There are few existing data examining how pharmacological treatment, such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion, and varenicline, affect smokers suffering with OSA and especially their cardiovascular effects...