Proxies of patients with poor performance status could give useful information about the patients’ quality of life (QoL). We applied a newly developed questionnaire in a prospective QoL study of patients undergoing radiotherapy for brain metastases in order to make the first move to validate this instrument, and we compared the results with scores obtained using validated patient-completed instruments.

The quantification and distinction of particulate guanylylcyclases in the human intestine wereconsidered by an enzymaticapproach, whichcomprised thesignaltransduction from receptor bindingto cGMP formation, and,in addition, by showingtheexpression of an intracellular portion ofthesetransmembrane proteins. Basal guanylyl cyclase (GC)activities were50to80pmol cGMP formation/minlmg proteinand were stimulated up to twofoldby heatstableenterotoxin, butwere not significantly influenced by atrial natriureticfactor.Enzymaticanalysis of colonoscopic specimens pointed tothe prevalence of guanylyl cyclaseC in theterminalileumand in thelarge bowelincluding colonascendens, colon descendens, sigmoid, andrectum.The availability ofsequenceinformation on human guanylyl cyclases permitted the development of a polymerasechain reactionapproachfor distinguishing theexpression ofGC-A andGC-C in human tissue samples. The expression levelsofparticulate guanylyl cyclases foundbypolymerase chainreaction in surgical biopsyspecimensconfirmed theenzymatic data,inthatsubstantial expression of GC-C was foundnot onlyinthesmallintestine butalsointhe