OBJECTIVE:To explore the basic principles,advantages and application prospects of Bayesian mixed treatment comparison (MTC),and provide theoretic support for making reasonable decisions of pharmacoeconomics. METHODS:The prob-lems existing in model and method that had been used in the study of pharmacoeconomics as starting point,literature research was used to sort out the domestic development and applications of MTC and study its application and development prospect. RESULTS &CONCLUSIONS:The evaluation methods of pharmacoeconomics play an important role in selection of essential medicines,medi-care insurance directory medicines,basic health and basic public health programs,the results directly affect the total effective rate of medical resources’configuration. The current research models cannot effectively solve the problem,for example,decision tree model is difficult to make evaluation of long-term treatment;Markov model and the use of multiple attribute utility theory are restricted by the model parameters;discrete event simulation is limited because it depends on the epidemiological study and clinical trial. MTC, an extension approach of the traditional Meta-analysis,is an effective new method developed recently to analyze and compare the di-rect or indirect evidence of several different clinical treatment factors in order to make a comprehensive evaluation of the various inter-ventions in the absence of evidence support. So the MTC can make up for the limitation of current evaluation methods.

ObjectiveTo investigate the finasteride application during the off-cycle of intermittent androgen blockade (IAB) in patients with advanced prostate cancer treated with IAB.MethodsEighty-seven patients with advanced prostate cancer were divided into two groups: forty-nine patients received IAB (group A), and thirty-eight patients underwent IAB and finasteride during the off-cycle of IAB (group B). The time of treatment cycle and the time to disease progression were compared between the two groups. ResultsThe patients in group A completed 89 treatment cycles and the mean cycle length was (12.8±5.4) months [treatment time and non-treatment time were (6.6±3.5) months and (7.1±4.8) months, respectively]. The patients in group B completed 85 cycles and the mean cycle length was (15.3±5.9) months [treatment time and non-treatment time were (6.9±3.2) months and (9.2v±3.9) months, respectively]. There was a significant difference between group A and B in the mean cycle length and the non-treatment time (P=0.0428,P=0.03).The 3-year progression rate was ( 34.8±3.5 )% in group A and ( 28.4±2.7)% in groups B ( P=0.035). ConclusionsThe application of finasteride during the off-cycle of IAB in patients with advanced prostate cancer treated with intermittent androgen blockade (IAB) can delay progression of advanced prostate cancer.

Objective To study the expressions of DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA in the prostate tissues and its diagnostic value in prostate cancer (PCa). Methods DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( FQ-RT-PCR) based on Taqman technique in the tissues of 21 cases of PCa and 39 cases of BPH. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of DD3 mRNA, PSA mRNA and DD3 mRNA/PSA mRNA. Results The expressions of DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA, and DD3 mRNA/ PSA mRNA were significantly higher in PCa tissues than those in BPH tissues ( P 0.05 for all). The AUC-ROC of DD3 mRNA,PSA mRNA and DD3 mRNA/PSA mRNA were 0. 937 (95% CI,0. 879 -0. 995) , 0.755(95% CI,0.629 -0.880) and 0.839 (95%CI,0.738 -0.940),respectively. The sensitivity for DD3 mRNA,PSA mRNA and DD3 mRNA/PSA mRNA was 90. 5% ,81. 0% and 81. 0% , respectively, and the specificity was 85.0% ,62.0% and 66.7% at cutoff value of 1.4?105 copies/mg tissue,3.0?107 copies/ mg tissue and 5. 0?10-3,respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of simultaneous detection for DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA were 100% and 85.0%. Conclusions Both DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA expressions were significantly higher in PCa tissues than those in BPH tissues; and the quantitative detection of DD3 mRNA is more helpful for the diagnosis. The simultaneous detection of DD3 mRNA and PSA mRNA can improve the sensitivity in the diagnosis of PCa.

Purpose/Significance Disease description texts are analyzed to reach a deeper understanding of the current status of on-line consultations for sleep disorders and the thematic characteristics of users with sleep disorders.Method/Process Data about sleep dis-orders from"haodf.com"website is collected by using a web crawler.Furthermore,the main themes about patients'description are i-dentified by the latent Dirichlet allocation(LDA)model.Result/Conclusion The departments of sleep disorders are more dispersed,and the main treatment is drug therapy.Online consultations could improve 83.2％of patients'condition.The themes of patients's disease descriptions include medication and consultation,external environment,description of symptoms,surrogate questions and causes.It is suggested that the platform and doctors should pay attention to the prognosis of patients'medication and mental health status,and pay at-tention to the popularization of comorbidities.

Objective:To investigate the annual amounts of knee and hip arthroplasty in China and their changing trends.Methods:Self-designed questionnaires were conducted by convenience sampling to investigate the annual sales of all brands of artificial joints in China from 2011 to 2019. The data in Beijing were collected from the joint department in all the secondary and tertiary hospitals in Beijing. The national data were collected from the principal of marketing department or sales department of the manufacturer. Statistical analysis was performed subsequently.Results:The number of questionnaire was 541 with recovery rate 87.2%. The annual amounts of knee and hip arthroplasty in China between 2011 and 2019 were 221,920 (2011), 250,473 (2012), 328,192 (2013), 437,100 (2014), 455,640 (2016), 567,397 (2017), 688,583 (2018), 951,986 (2019) respectively. However, the 2015 data was missing. The annual growth rates were 12.87% (2012), 31.03% (2013), 33.18% (2014), 24.53% (2017), 21.36% (2018), 38.25% (2019). The average of annual growth rate between 2011 and 2019 was 19.96%. Amongst the total amounts of joint arthroplasty in China, hip prosthesis (domestic and imported) accounted for 75.72% (2011), 72.61% (2012), 67.73% (2013), 64.74% (2014), 62.47% (2016), 65.04% (2017), 62.78% (2018) and 59.44% (2019), while the domestic prosthesis (hip and knee) engaged 33.15% (2011), 39.27% (2012), 45.16% (2014), 42.19% (2016), 47.55% (2017), 54.33% (2018) and 55.97% (2019). The annual amounts of THA and TKA in Beijing between 2011 and 2019 were 11,077 (2011), 12,005 (2012), 16,822 (2013), 18,147 (2014), 19,102 (2015), 19,247 (2016), 18,467 (2017), 20,258 (2018), 21,381 (2019). The annual growth rates were 8.38% (2012), 40.12%(2013), 7.88% (2014), 5.26% (2015), 0.76% (2016), -4.10% (2017), 9.76% (2018), 5.54% (2019). The average of annual growth rate between 2011 and 2019 was 8.56%. Amongst the total amounts of joint arthroplasty in Beijing, hip prosthesis (domestic and imported) accounted for 48.26% (2011), 48.90% (2012), 46.54% (2013), 46.17% (2014), 46.33%(2015), 45.31%(2016), 43.33% (2017), 41.64% (2018) and 43.66% (2019).Conclusion:The total amounts of joint arthroplasty reached up to 951,986 in 2019 with the average annual growth rate of 19.96% between 2011 and 2019. The national amount of hip and knee arthroplasty increased stably, while the amount of hip and knee arthroplasty in Beijing grew slowly. The number of hip arthroplasty was more than that of knee arthroplasty nationwide, while the trend was converse in Beijing. Domestic prosthesis had a higher growth rate than imported prosthesis. The amount of domestic prosthesis surpassed that of imported prosthesis from 2018.

Objective:To summarize the clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected with Delta variant, so as to provide further references for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods:A real-world study was conducted to analyze the characteristics of 166 COVID-19 patients infected with Delta variant at Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University.Results:The study enrolled 5 asymptomatic cases, 123 non-severe cases (mild and moderate type), and 38 severe cases (severe and critical type). Among these patients, 69 (41.6%) were male and 97 (58.4%) were female, with a mean age of 47.0±23.5 years. Thirty-nine cases (23.5%) had received 1 or 2 doses of inactivated vaccine. The incidence of severe COVID-19 cases was 7.7% in 2-doses vaccinated patients, which was lower than that of 11.5% in 1-dose and 26.8% in unvaccinated patients. The proportion of severe cases in 2 dose-vaccinated patients was 7.7%, which was lower than that of 11.5% in 1-dose vaccinated patients and 26.8% in unvaccinated patients, but the difference was not significant ( P>0.05). The most common clinical symptom was fever (134 cases, 83.2%), and 39.1% of cases presented with high-grade fever (≥39 °C); other symptoms were cough, sputum, fatigue, and xerostomia. The proportion of fever in severe cases was significantly higher than that of non-severe cases (97.4% vs. 76.4%, P<0.01). Similarly, the proportion of severe cases with high peak temperature (≥39 ℃) () was also higher than that of non-severe cases (65.8% vs. 30.9%, P<0.01). The median minimal Cycle threshold (Ct) values of viral nucleic acid N gene and ORFlab gene were 20.3 and 21.5, respectively, and the minimum Ct values were 11.9 and 13.5, respectively. Within 48 h of admission, 9.0% of cases presented with decreased white blood cell counts, and 52.4% with decreased lymphocyte counts. The proportions of increased C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, interleukin 6, and interleukin 10 were 32.5%, 57.4%, 65.3%, and 35.7%, respectively. The proportions of elevated C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A and interleukin-6 in severe cases were significantly higher than those in non-severe cases ( P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that older age and higher peak temperature were associated with a higher likelihood of severe cases ( OR>3, 95% CI: 2-7, P<0.01). In terms of treatment, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was used in 97.6% of non-severe cases and 100% in severe cases. Other treatments included respiratory and nutritional support, immunotherapy (such as neutralizing antibodies and plasma of recovered patients). The median times from admission to progression to severe cases, of fever clearance, and of nucleic acid conversion were 5 days, 6 days and 19 days, respectively. No deaths were reported within 28 days. Conclusions:The symptoms of Delta variant infection in Guangzhou are characterized by a high proportion of fever, high peak temperature, long duration of fever, high viral load, a long time to nucleic acid conversion, and a high incidence of severe cases. The severe cases exhibit a higher percentage of elderly patients, a longer duration of fever and have a higher fever rate and a higher hyperthermia rate than non-severe cases. Age and hyperthermia are independent risk factors for progression to severe disease. The combination of TCM and Western medicine can control the progression of the disease effectively.