Objective
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine for the treatment of angina pectoris.
Methods
PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 11, 2015), VIP, WanFang Data and CNKI databases were used to evaluate the curative effect and safety of proprietary Chinese medicine in the treatment of angina pectoris. The retrieval time was up to November 2015. Two reviewers screened literatures, extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included studies, and then the GRADE evaluation system was used to assess the quality of evidence.
Results
A total of 42 systematic reviews/Meta-analysises were included in the study. There were 15 kinds of proprietary Chinese medicines, and the drugs published most were compound composite salvia. AMSTAR evaluation results showed that the quality of all studies were low. The main problems were: ① no consideration was given to the publication of the inclusion criteria (eg, gray literature); ② only the list of articles included in the study literature was not available; ③ all articles did not describe the relevant conflicts of interest. The results of GRADE systems showed that: ① as to the total effective rate: musk pills (RR=3.44, 95%CI 2.99 to 3.96,P=0.08) and suxiaojiuxin Pills (RR=4.25, 95% CI 3.31 to 5.47,P<0.01) were superior to Western medicine, and the level of evidence was very low. ② As to the ECG changes efficiency rate: Puerarin (RR=3.61, 95% CI 2.95 to 4.42,P=0.05), Musk pill (RR=2.48, 95%CI 2.12 to 2.91,P<0.01) and Shuxuening (RR=1.62, 95% CI 1.33 to1.97,P<0.01) were superior to Western medicine, and the evidence level was low. The level of evidence was low for the remaining effective rate of proprietary Chinese medicine; ③ as to the adverse reactions: the musk Baoxin pill (RR=0.05, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.37,P=0.04) was less than Western medicine, and the evidence level was low.
Conclusion
Although the number of systematic reviews of published proprietary Chinese medicines for angina pectoris is high, but the methodological quality and evidence level are low. There are serious defects in the low quality of the original research literature and the systematic evaluation method. We suggest future studies to improve for two aspects: ① reasonable design to reduce the selective bias, to carry out the required clinical trials to reduce the implementation bias, the implementation of multi-center, the sample size of sufficient randomized controlled clinical trials to reduce the number of patients into the group less resulting in the loss of bias, strict implementation of the standard data collection methods to reduce the occurrence of measurement bias; ② in accordance with the requirements of clinical trials to report to improve the report quality of the literature.
Objective
To investigate the relationship among central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), major systemic diseases, ocular local diseases and related risk factors in Chinese population.
Methods
Seventeen-six patients with CRVO diagnosed by fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) without any medical treatment were in CRVO group. Another 76 patients without CRVO or any vascular diseases of ocular fundus were in the control group who were matched with the ones in CRVO group to a one-to-one partnership according to the age and gender. The 2 groups were subdivided into le;45 years old (25 patients, 32.9%) and gt;45 years old (51 patients, 67.1%) subgroups according to the age, and 2 ischemia and non-ischema subgroups according to the results of FFA, respectively. The blood lipid, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose were measured. The systematic diseases, ocular local diseases and the related risk factors were statistically analyzed and compared.
Results
The incidence of hypertension and hyperlipemia in CRVO group were significantly higher than that in the control group (Plt;0.001,P=0.001). There was no significant difference of cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, open-angle glaucoma, and smoking and drinking between the two groups(Pgt;0.05). In le;45 years old subgroups, there was no significant difference of each examination target between CRVO and control group(Pgt;0.05). In ischemia subgroups, except for the hypertension and hyperlipemia, the incidence of diabetes mellitus was obviously higher in CRVO group than that in the control group (hyperlipidemia:P=0.031; diabetes mellitus:P=0.024; diabetes mellitus: Plt;0.001).
Conclusion
Hypertension and hyperlipidemia are the systematic factors in Chinese population with occurrence of CRVO. In addition, diabetes mellitus is associated with ischemic CRVO. Timely diagnosis and treatment of the systematic diseases is important to the prevention and treatment for CRVO.
(Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis, 2007, 23:159-162)
Objective To investigate the proliferation inhibitory effect and to explore the molecular mechanism of curcumin on pulmonary fibroblasts. Methods Fibroblasts derived from lung tissue of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ( IPF) was cultured in vitro and incubated with curcumin at different concentrations for different time. Fibroblasts were randomized into 5 groups, ie. a control group and 4 curcumin groups ( intervened by 5, 10, 20, 40 μmol / L curcumin, respectively) . MTT assay was used to determine the inhibitory rate of curcumin on the proliferation of pulmonary fibroblasts. Apoptosis and the Caspase-3 expression of pulmonary fibroblasts were identified by flow cytometry ( FCM) . Variables were compared with One-Way ANOVA. The correlations between variables were analyzed using Pearson’scorrelation coefficient. Results Curcumin inhibited pulmonary fibroblasts proliferation in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner( r =0. 886, r = 0. 832, respectively, all P lt; 0. 01) . Apoptosis rate of pulmonary fibroblasts in 4 curcumin groups was ( 29. 58 ±2. 13) % , ( 64. 36 ±3. 92) %, ( 72. 98 ±4. 42) % , ( 83. 14 ±2. 51) % , respectively, which was significantly higher than that in the control group[ ( 3. 84 ±1. 88) % , P lt;0. 01] . The positive expression rate of apoptosis-regulating protein caspase-3 was ( 26. 24 ±3. 64) % ,( 44. 87 ±5. 31) % , ( 57. 44 ±4. 23) % , ( 73. 65 ±5. 01) % , respectively, which was significantly higher than that of the control group[ ( 4. 02 ±0. 62) % , P lt; 0. 01] . Conclusions In vitro, curcumin can significantly inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of pulmonary fibroblasts of patients with IPF. The mechanism maybe associated with up-regulating expression of Caspase-3.
Objective To observe the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme( ACE) and ACE2 in rat lung and kidney at different time point after smoke inhalation injury and to explore the possible mechanism. Methods Thirty healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups( n = 6 in each group) , ie. a normal control group, and 4 injury groups of 1 h, 4 h, 10 h and 24 h respectively after 30 min of dense smoke inhalation. The rats were sacrificed at different time point. Lung and kidney tissue samples were collected for measurement of lung wet/dry weight ratio( W/D) , pathological study by HE staining, and ACE and ACE2 expression by immunochemistry staining. Results The inhaled rats all displayed acute lung injury symptoms. The lung W/D in the injury groups were significantly higher compared to the normal control group ( P lt; 0. 05, P lt; 0. 01) . ACE and ACE2 were expressed on cellular membrane of normal lung and kidney. The expression of ACE in lung was increased immediately after injury and the expression of ACE2 in lung was increased at 4 h after injury. No significant changes of the expression of ACE and ACE2 in kidney were observed in the five groups. Conclusion The imbalances of expression of ACE and ACE2 in lung might play an important role in the pathogenesis of smoke inhalation injury.
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of autologous hemopoietic stem cell implantation for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified from CBM (1978 to September 2010), CNKI (1979 to September 2010), MEDLINE (1950 to September 2010), Pubmed (1950 to September 2010), Embase (1970 to September 2010), and Cochrane l ibrary (issue 4, 2010). The papers of the RCTs of cl inical therapeutic studieson PAD treated by autologous hemopoietic stem cell implantation were included and analyzed according to the criteria of the Cochrane handbook. Results Eight RCTs involving 280 patients and 322 extremities were included, with majority of trials of low methodological qual ity. Meta-analysis indicated that autologous hemopoietic stem cell transplantation had an increased ulcer cure rate [RD=0.38, 95% CI= (0.25, 0.50)], a significant improvement in the ankle brachial index [MD=0.11, 95%CI= (0.04, 0.18)], transcutaneous oxygen tension [MD=7.33, 95%CI= (3.14, 11.51)], and pain-free walking distance [SMD=1.35, 95%CI= (0.90, 1.79)], a significant reduction in rest pain scores [MD= —1.70, 95%CI= (—2.15, —1.25)], and a significant benefit in terms of l imb salvage [RD= —0.19, 95%CI= (—0.31, —0.07)]. Only 2 trials reported the side effects of autologous hemopoietic stem cell transplantation, such as l imbs swell ing and concentrations of serum creatine phosphokinase increasing, and the long-term safety was not reported. Conclusion Based on the review, autologous hemopoietic stem cell transplantation may have positive effect on “no-option” patients with PAD. However, the evidence is not b enough due to the general low methodological qual ity, so we can not draw a rel iable conclusion about the effects of autologous stem cell transplantation for PAD at the moment. Further larger, randomized, double bl ind, placebo-controlled, and multicenter trials are needed.
Objective To systematically review the effectiveness and safety of autologous implantation of stem cells for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Methods Randomized controlled trials on relevant studies were retrieved in databases including CBM (1978-2011.6), CNKI (1979-2011.6), MEDLINE (1950-2011.6), PubMed (1950-2011.6), EMbase (1970-2011.6) and The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2011). References of the included studies were also retrieved. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.0 software.Results Four RCTs involving 68 patients (136 limbs) were included, most of which were low in methodological quality. The results of meta-analysis indicated that, autologous stem cell therapy improved or even eliminated DPN symptoms including pain, numbness, and cold sensation in the limbs, intermittent limping, and rest pain. Compared with the routine therapy, autologous stem cell therapy improved tibial sensory nerve conduction velocity (MD=5.75, 95%CI 3.86 to 7.64, Plt;0.000 01), tibial motor nerve conduction velocity (MD=4.04, 95%CI 0.90 to 7.18, P=0.001), sural sensory nerve conduction velocity (MD=7.47, 95%CI 4.00 to 10.94, Plt;0.000 1), and sural motor nerve conduction velocity (MD=3.38, 95%CI 0.07 to 7.58, P=0.05), with no adverse reaction reported. Conclusion Current evidence shows that, autologous stem cell therapy is effective in treating DPN. Due to the lack of high quality studies, more high quality RCTs are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of sarpogrelate hydrochloride for patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on PAD treated by sarpogrelate hydrochloride were identified from CBM (1978 to September 2011), CNKI (1979 to May 2011), PubMed (1950 to May 2011), EMbase (1970 to May 2011) and The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2011). According to the criteria of the Cochrane Handbook, two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted and cross-checked the data, and assessed the methodological quality. Then meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan 5.0 software. Results Nine RCTs involving 522 patients and 532 limbs were included, with low methodological quality in most trials. The results of meta-analyses indicated that compared with the conventional treatment, sarpogrelate hydrochloride could reduce the area of ulcers (MD= –3.22, 95%CI –3.99 to –2.45), and it could increase the ankle-brachial index (SMD=0.49, 95%CI 0.07 to 0.91), blood flow of dorsalis pedis artery (MD=0.16, 95%CI 0.09 to 0.23) and pain-free walking distance (MD=200.87, 95%CI 3.39 to 398.36). Five trials reported the adverse effects of sarpogrelate hydrochloride, most of which were mild gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion Based on the review, sarpogrelate hydrochloride may have positive effect on patients with PAD. However, the evidence is not b enough due to the general low methodological quality, so the reliable conclusion has to be drawn with more high quality studies in future.
Accurate segmentation of whole slide images is of great significance for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. However, developing an automatic model is challenging due to the complex content, limited samples, and high sample heterogeneity of pathological images. This paper presented a multi-tissue segmentation model for whole slide images of pancreatic cancer. We introduced an attention mechanism in building blocks, and designed a multi-task learning framework as well as proper auxiliary tasks to enhance model performance. The model was trained and tested with the pancreatic cancer pathological image dataset from Shanghai Changhai Hospital. And the data of TCGA, as an external independent validation cohort, was used for external validation. The F1 scores of the model exceeded 0.97 and 0.92 in the internal dataset and external dataset, respectively. Moreover, the generalization performance was also better than the baseline method significantly. These results demonstrate that the proposed model can accurately segment eight kinds of tissue regions in whole slide images of pancreatic cancer, which can provide reliable basis for clinical diagnosis.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely used in all walks of life, including healthcare, and has shown great application value in the auxiliary diagnosis of pulmonary nodules in the medical field. In the face of a large amount of lung imaging data, clinicians use AI tools to identify lesions more quickly and accurately, improving work efficiency, but there are still many problems in this field, such as the high false positive rate of recognition, and the difficulty in identifying special types of nodules. Researchers and clinicians are actively developing and using AI tools to promote their continuous evolution and make them better serve human health. This article reviews the clinical application and research progress of AI-assisted diagnosis of pulmonary nodules.
Neuropathic pain (NP) is a pathological state caused by damage or disease to the somatosensory nervous system. Programmed cell death (PCD) is an orderly process of cell death regulated by both intrinsic signals and external stimuli. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have shown that PCD plays a key regulatory role in the pathogenesis of NP. This article reviews the molecular mechanisms of various types of PCD and their specific roles in NP, in order to provide new research directions for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of NP.
