ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) versus anti-coagulation (AC) for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, WanFang Data and CNKI databases to collect randomized clinical trials (RCTs) about CDT versus AC for DVT from inception to March 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and evaluated the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 5 RCTs and 989 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the two group in incidence of post-thrombotic syndrome (RR=0.73, 95%CI 0.49 to 1.09, P=0.13), iliofemoral venous patency rate (RR=2.57, 95%CI 0.59 to 11.24, P=0.21), bleeding (RR=2.03, 95%CI 0.50 to 8.28, P=0.32), severe bleeding (RR=1.77, 95%CI 0.91 to 3.42, P=0.09) and recurrence rate of venous thromboembolism (RR=1.00, 95%CI 0.42 to 2.36, P=0.99). However, the incidence of moderate-severe PTS decreased in CDT group was lower than that in the control group (RR=0.70, 95%CI 0.53 to 0.92, P=0.01). ConclusionsCompared with the control group, catheter-directed thrombolysis does not reduce the incidence of PTS and VTE recurrence rate, cannot improve the long-term patency of the iliofemoral vein, yet can prevent the occurrence of moderate to severe PTS. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.
ObjectiveTo analyze the association between the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) (syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung) and clinical indicators related to COPD.
MethodAECOPD in-patients and out-patients were enrolled from the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu from January 2013 to January 2014. The patients were grouped to Tanre Syndrome and non-Tanre Syndrome according to their clinical symptoms, signs and tongue, pulse. All patients underwent the following tests including routine blood test, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, lung function, blood gas analysis, C-reaction protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and other clinically relevant indicators. The association between AECOPD and clinically relevant indicators were analyzed by using SPSS 19.0 software.
ResultsA total of 194 AECOPD patients were included, of which 88 patients were syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung and 106 were non syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung according to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) classifications. The results of single factor analysis showed that age (Z=-4.848, P=0.000) and course of disease (Z=-2.455, P=0.014) were associated with syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung. While further logistic regression analysis showed that age (r=0.090, P=0.000) and the level of CRP (r=-0.008, P=0.000) were associated with syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung.
ConclusionSyndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung is the major clinical TCM syndrome of AECOPD. Syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung is associated with age and level of CRP.
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the value of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in predicting the occurrence of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), and to compare it with traditional Logistic regression models to assess its predictive efficacy, providing theoretical basis for the prediction of VTE risk in OSA patients. MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on patients diagnosed with OSA and hospitalized in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, from January 2018 to August 2023. Patients were divided into OSA combined with VTE group (n=128) and pure OSA control group (n=680). The dataset was randomly divided into a training set (n=646) and an independent validation set (n=162). The Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) was employed to address the issue of data imbalance. Artificial Neural Networks and Logistic regression models were then built on training sets with and without SMOTE. Finally, the performance of each model was evaluated using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, Youden's index, and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC). Results When oversampling was conducted using SMOTE on the training set, both the Artificial Neural Network and Logistic regression models showed improved AUC. The Artificial Neural Network model with SMOTE performed the best with an AUC value of 0.935 (95%CI: 0.898–0.961), achieving an accuracy of 90.15%, specificity of 87.32%, sensitivity of 93.44%, and Youden’s index of 0.808 at the optimal cutoff point. The Logistic regression model with SMOTE yielded an AUC value of 0.817 (95%CI: 0.765–0.861), with an accuracy of 77.27%, specificity of 83.80%, sensitivity of 69.67%, and Youden's index of 0.535. The difference in AUC between the Artificial Neural Network model and Logistic regression model was statistically significant after employing SMOTE (P<0.05). Conclusions The Artificial Neural Network model demonstrates high effectiveness in predicting VTE formation in OSA patients, particularly with the further improvement in predictive performance when utilizing SMOTE oversampling technique, rendering it more accurate and stable compared to the traditional Logistic regression model.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a severe infectious disease induced by human immuno deficiency virus (HIV). Laboratory testing plays an important role in the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. In general, laboratory testing includes detection of virus antibodies and antigens, virus RNA, immune cells (CD4+, CD8+) and anti-HIV drug resistance. During the past twenty years, great progress has been made in laboratory testing. As research on HIV/AIDS has advanced and biotechnology has developed rapidly, different methods of testing have been discovered. In recent years, the application of molecular biotechnology and immunology has led to important advances for epidemiological surveys, clinical diagnosis and treatment of HIV. The existence of a testing method with high sensitivity and specificity is not only helpful for early diagnosis and prediction, monitoring and evaluation of therapeutic efficacy, but can also reduce the risk of false-negative results. HIV laboratory testing is now developing towards a simple, rapid, sensitive, accurate and automatic way of diagnosing this condition.
Object As part of the core outcome set (COS), the core traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome set can improve the consistency of syndrome efficacy evaluation outcomes in TCM clinical research. Previous studies proposed and empirically verified a method of developing core TCM syndrome sets based on complex syndromes under the disease-syndrome combination research model. However, this method is developed on the basis of syndrome types, which has the limitation that the finally included syndrome types are too single to adapt to the complexity of clinical syndromes. Therefore, it is urgent to optimize the existing development method to balance the complexity of clinical syndromes and methodological feasibility. Methods This study adopted qualitative research methods to obtain opinions from TCM clinicians and researchers on developing methods, efficacy evaluation criteria, and construction forms through expert steering committee meetings and semi-structured interviews. The sample size of semi-structured interviews was determined until data saturation was reached, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcription results. Results In the expert steering committee meeting, 60% (3/5) of the experts believed that developing in the form of syndrome elements was more operable; in the semi-structured interviews, 77.78% (7/9) of the experts supported developing in the form of syndrome elements, considering it convenient to use. Meanwhile, the research team added an expert semi-structured interview link in the development process, which complemented the cross-sectional survey used in previous studies to jointly improve the original list of TCM syndrome elements. Conclusion The method of developing core TCM syndrome sets based on syndrome elements formed in this study can consider clinical practice while improving the unity of TCM syndrome efficacy evaluation standards, which is helpful to promote the standardized development of TCM clinical research.
ObjectiveTo analysis the regularity of prescriptions of Chinese Medicine for syndrome of intense fire and heat (syndrome of Shi-Re-Huo-Du), and to provide evidences for the clinical treatment.MethodsCNKI, Sinomed, WanFang Data, VIP and Chinese medical databases were electronically searched to collect literatures about traditional Chinese Medicine for syndrome of Shi-Re-Huo-Du from inception to October, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature and extracted data. Then BICOMS 2 software was used to generate the co-occurrence matrix, NetDraw software was used to draw network maps.ResultsA total of 381 literatures involving 335 patients were included. There were 716 prescriptions of Shi-Re-Huo-Du (390 Chinese medicinal herbs), in which the frequently used herb included radix glycyrrhizae (346), Scutellariae Radix (255), Fructus Gardeniae (241), Rehmanniae Radix (239), Moutan Cortex (218), etc. The classification was performed according to traditional efficacy, Qing-re herbs (73), Bu-xu herbs (47), and Hua-tan-zhi-ke-ping-chuan herbs (39), accounted for 40.77% of the total herbs. The results of the analysis showed that the top herbs in Degree and Betweenness were consistent with high-frequency herbs. Among them, Rehmanniae Radix, Fructus Gardeniae, Scutellariae Radix, Moutan Cortex are the most important traditional Chinese herbs. High-frequency herbs are mainly based on Qing-re herbs, and the highest frequency of the herbs combination is Scutellariae Radix-Fructus Gardeniae.ConclusionAlthough there are kinds of herbs for syndrome of Shi-Re-Huo-Du, the commonly used herbs are relatively concentrated, and there is obvious interaction between high-frequency herbs, which is in line with the principle of compatibility of Chinese medicine. The high-frequency Chinese herbs and herb pairs were main components of the Chinese patent medicines and classic prescription. It reflected the rule of medicine used and essence in the treatment of syndrome of Shi-Re-Huo-Du.
Objective
To investigate the characteristics of images of angiography in uveal effusion syndrome (UES).
Methods
The clinical data of fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) in 11 patients (17 eyes) with UES were retrospectively analyzed, and 4 patients (7 eyes) underwent angiography again 1 month to 28 months after segmental sclerectomy.
Result
The results of FFA and ICGA showed papilledema and venous tortuosity and dilation in 12 eyes, leakage spots at the post pole of ocular fundus in 2 eyes, leopard spots in 14 eyes, linear or meshy pigment stripes in 8 eyes. The results of ICGA showed uneven flecked hyperfluorescence lasted to later stage in 4 patients (5 eyes), a triangle hypofluorescence area at the inferior fundus in 1 eye, and a geographic pattern hypofluorescence at the posterior pole in 1 eye. Segmental sclerectomy was performed on 5 patients (8 eyes), and after surgery, cilia-choroidal detachment was gradually alleviated and even disappeared, the status of choroidal hyperpermeability was alleviated, and the leakage spots disappeared. The subretinal fluid increased in only 1 eye 2 years after the surgery.
Conclusion
The characteristics of aniography for UES are venous tortuosity and dilation, papilledema, leopard spots, and linear or meshy pigmentary stripes, which may deepen our understanding about the disease and help to diagnose it.
(Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis, 2007, 23: 189-192)
ObjectiveTo improve the clinicians’ understanding and treatment level of electrical status epilepticus during sleep by analyzing the clinical data of patients with ESES retrospectively.MethodsWe collected 20 cases from 2018 to 2019 diagnosed in our hospital by clinical and 24-hour video EEG confirmed and analyzed the clinical manifestations, EEG features, seizure type, classification of epilepsy syndrome as well as the imaging findings.ResultsAmong the 20 patients, there were 12 males and 8 females, the mean age was (10.96±2.68) years old, and the first onset age was (8.90±1.93) years old. Epilepsy seizure as the first symptom is most common, the EEG showed a broad or localized sustained discharge, generalized tonic clonic seizure is the main form of seizure type in most patients, ECSWS is the most prominent in the epilepsy syndrome, for small lesion through MR can be found early.ConclusionMost patients have partial or generalized seizures, which have a range of cognitive impairment, mental decline or other issues. It is important to improve the cognitive function, behavior, neuropsychology of patients by long term video EEG monitoring in the early stage.
