BACKGROUND: The relationship of trace element and human body health is increasingly paid more attention. Many trace elements are indispensable for organism. The lack of trace element is closely related to the occurrence of cardio-cerebrovascular disease, while the medicative effect of traditional Chinese medicine depends on the sorts and level of the contained trace elements.OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of Ca, Mg, Cu, Cr, Zn and Fe in 10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions for the treatment of cerebrovascular disease.SETTING: Medical Experimental Center of Jilin Medical College.MATERIALS: This experiment was carried out in the Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology during March to May 2003. Ten traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions Naosaitong, Qiangli Tianma Duzhong Wan,Kangshuan Wan, Tongmai Ningxin Chongji, Rongshuan Jiaonang,Buchang Naoxintong, Dahuoluodan, Zhongfeng Huichun Wan, Xiaoshuan Tongluo Jioonang and Huatuo ZaizaoWan, purchased from market were selected for the treatment of cardio-cerebrovascular disease in this study.Strong HNO3 and grade-guaranteed reagent were made in Beijing Chemical Co. Ltd; HC1O4 and another kind of grade-guaranteed reagent were made in Tianjin Dongfang Chemical Co. Ltd.METHODS: Ten pills and 10 tablets were chosen and crushed evenly respectively. Two portions were equally chosen from each sample, 1.00 geach portion, and placed in ten 50 mL conical flask respectively. Then,strong HNO3 of 10 mL was used to envelop the conical flask, overnight. On the next day, strong HNO3 of 10 mL and HClO4 of 5 mL were respectively added into each flask, then which was slowly heated on the electric hot plate. When about 2 mL liquid was left in the conical flask, another 20 mL strong HNO3 and 5 mL HC1O4 were respectively added to further digest till the solution was achromatic and transparent, and flask was nearly dried.After cooled, the samples were transferred to a 25 mL volumetric flask and metered with 3% HNO3. The level of Ca, Mg, Cu, Cr, Zn and Fe 6 metallic elements in10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions was measured respectively with atomic absorption spectrophotometry.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The level of Ca, Mg, Cu, Cr, Zn and Fe 6 metallic elements in 10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions.RESULTS: Among the levels of metallic elements in 10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions, the level of Mg was found the most in Rongshuan Jiaonang [(89.201 6±0.855 4) mg/g]; The level of Ca the most in Dahuoluodan [(14.312 5±0.507 0) mg/g]; Zn and Fe the most abundant in Kangshuan Wan [(60.487 5±1.639 8)mg/g and(980.081 2±15.395 9) mg/g respectively]; while the level of Cr very more in the Xiaoshuan Tongluo Jiaonang [(9.881 2±0.734 4) mg/g].CONCLUSION: Six metallic elements are all abundant in 10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions, but significant differences exist.Experimental results provide some evidences for investigating the relationship of the levels of metallic elements in 10 traditional Chinese medicine patent prescriptions and the therapeutic effect on treating cerebrovascular disease.

Objective:To assess the association between particulate air pollution and hospital admissions for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) in Beijing, and to eva-luate the differences of association among different subgroups.Methods: Hospital admissions to intertiary hospitals for AECOPD from January 1,2014, through December 31, 2015 were obtained from the electronic hospitalization summary reports (HSRs).We obtained the data on air pollution during the study period from the national air pollution monitoring system.The data on meteorological variables were obtained from the Chinese meteorological bureau.A poison generalized additive model was used to assess the effects of particulate pollution on AECOPD with adjustment for the long term trend, day of week, holiday effect and meteorological variables.Subgroup analyses were also conducted by age and gender, which would help identify higher-risk groups.Results: A total of 7 884 hospitalizations from 15 tertiary hospitals were recorded during the study period, and 69.3% were male patients, 37.1% were ≥80 years of age, 45.5% were 65-79 years of age, and 17.4% were younger than 65.The mean (SD) daily concentrations of PM2.5, PM10 were 77.1 (66.6) μg/m3, 111.9 (75.8) μg/m3.Every 10 μg/m3 increase in particulate pollution concentration for a lag of 4 d was associated with an increase in hospital admissions for AECOPD as follows: 0.53% (95% CI: 0.01%-1.06%, P=0.0478) of PM2.5, 0.53% (95% CI: 0.07%-1.00%, P=0.0250) of PM10, respectively.We found differences in risk for AECOPD admissions among the different subgroups.For every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, PM10 exposure in the female group there was a 1.13% (95% CI: 0.19%-2.07%, P=0.018 3) increase, 1.06% (95% CI: 0.22%-1.91%, P=0.013 6) increase in admissions, respectively, while in the male group, the association was non-significant.The patients of 80 years of age and older demonstrated a hi-gher risk of AECOPD, 1.25% (95% CI: 0.40%-2.11%, P=0.004 0) increase of PM2.5, 1.18% (95% CI: 0.42%-1.95%, P=0.002 4) increase of PM10, respectively, while other subgroups didn't find significant association.Conclusion: Our findings showed that particulate air pollution was significantly associated with hospital admissions for AECOPD in Beijing.The susceptibility to particulate pollution varied by gender and age.

Ebola virus disease , which can cause ebola hemorrhagic fever , is a potent zoonotic infectious virus disease . In 2014 , Ebola virus spread across West Africa and it has become a new major threat to global public health .This article summarizes the structural features of Ebola virus , transmission characteristics , interactions ,animal models .

Detection of pathogenic microorganisms has been a hot research field of microbiology.Conventional detection methods,such as isolation and culture, PCR technology, ELISA and genomic sequencing,are all time-consuming and com-plex.Because of the advantages of quick-testing, accuracy, safety and efficiency, spectroscopy has become a new non-inva-sive testing technology and has witnessed rapid development in pathogen detection and disease diagnosis.This article intro-duces three types of common spectroscopy technologies ( laser excitation fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy) , and also explains how they work in the detection of pathogenic microorganisms.

Disease risk score (DRS) can be used to adjust the confounding effects on data with high dimensions and can reduce related bias through balancing the risk or probability,regarding the development of some specific diseases,between the two compared groups.The DRS approach thus can be applied to studies of pharmacoepidemiology when administrative medical database is used for data analysis.Although DRS functions are similarly to the propensity scores (PS) under many situations,even with some advantages over PS or conventional analytical methods in some special exposure settings,the usage of DRS is far limited than the PS method.Considering the important application value of DRS in pharmacoepidemiologic studies,we are introducing the theory,model,estimation and application of DRS,to present reference for the development of DRS method in the pharmacoepidemiologic studies.

Objective:To understand the research progresses of economic evaluation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) both at home and abroad, and provide reference for economic evaluation of NPIs using real-world data in China.Methods:The literature retrieval was conducted by searching Chinese and English databases to indude papers about economic evaluation of NPIs and integrated NPIs published from January, 2020 to December, 2021, and the results were analyzed comprehensively.Results:A total of 30 Chinese and English literatures about economic evaluation of NPIs for COVID-19 prevention and control were included; including 7 papers about nucleic acid and testing and screening, 6 papers about individual prevention and protection measures, 12 papers about integrated implementation of individual prevention and protection, social distancing, nucleic acid or antigen testing, community screening and symptom screening, as well as close contact tracing and isolation/quarantine, and 5 papers about contain strategies, such as lockdown. This study found that personal protection, social distancing, and testing-tracing-isolation measures were cost-effective; however, different combinations of NPIs might lead to different results. Moreover, the cost of lockdown was high, which might cause huge economic burden.Conclusions:Most NPIs are cost-effective except lockdown, while the cost-effectiveness of the integrations of NPIs at different levels and in different scenarios needs to be further evaluated. It is necessary to carry out economic evaluation of integrated NPIs and the combination of NPIs with other interventions, such as vaccination and medication, based on real-world settings in China.

Objective To assess the association between Metformin use and the risk of dementia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods The research data came from the big medical data platform of Yinzhou District,and we constructed a cohort of T2DM patients who had initiated treatment of Metformin or sulfonylurea since January 1,2009.The inverse probability of treatment weighting(IPTW)was used to control the baseline confounding factors,and the Cox regression model was used to estimate the HR(95%CI)of the association between Metformin use and dementia risk.Results The incidence rate of dementia in new users of Metformin(41181 persons)and sulfonylureas(38092 persons)was 128.4 per 100000 person years and 142.3 per 100000 person years respectively.Compared with sulfonylureas,the crude analysis with no adjustment for confounding factors showed that there was a negative association between the use of Metformin and the incidence of dementia,with an HR(95%CI)0.930(0.800～1.090).After adjusting for potential confounders with IPTW,Metformin was not significantly associated with the risk of dementia HR(95%CI)1.040(0.890～1.220).The subgroup analysis results for different baseline characteristics were consistent with the primary analysis results,and there were no statistically significant associations between Metformin and dementia incidence risk in all subgroups.Conclusions There is no significant association between the use of Metformin and the risk of dementia in T2DM patients in the Yinzhou District.

Objective To explore the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MS) by using the data from cohorts involving people having received screening programs for physical check-up,in three areas of China (Beijing,Hongkong and Taiwan).Methods A total number of 6 828 non-metabolic syndromic adults,who received physical examination for the first time and with records kept for longer than 5 years (between 2004 and 2010) at the MJ centers,were recruited.Criteria developed by the Joint Committee for Developing Chinese Guidelines on Prevention and Treatment of Dyslipidemia in Chinese Adults in 2007 (JCDCG-2007) was used for defining the metabolic syndrome.Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to examine the difference of the risk of developing MS among the three cohorts that received the health screening programs.Results The standardized incidence densities of MS were 3.14 per 100 person-years,2.19 per 100 person-years and 2.03 per 100 person-years in the cohorts of Beijing,Hongkong and Taiwan,respectively.After adjusting for gender,age,cigarette smoking,dietary patterns at the baseline,the HRs for people in Beijing and Hongkong were 1.60 (95％CI:1.34-1.91) and 1.08 (95％CI:0.83-1.41) respectively,in developing MS,when compared with people from Taiwan.Factors as being male,elderly,cigarette smoking,meat/food intake dietary pattern and MS components at the baseline all showed significantly positive effects on the risk of developing MS.Conclusions There were significant differences regarding the risk of developing MS among health screening people from the Beijing,Hongkong and Taiwan.Factors as being male,elderly,cigarette smoking,meat/food intake,dietary pattern and MS components at the baseline appear to be the risk factors for developing the MS.

Objective:To systematically identify and summarizes the weaknesses of the key aspects of Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trial (IIT) quality management in China, and quantitatively assess these weaknesses with a synthesis of relevant evidence, thereby providing references for the subsequent establishment of a complete IIT quality management system in China.Methods:According to the Scoping review report checklist (PRISMA-ScR statement), we conducted a systematic literature retrieval and screening, data extraction, and result synthesis of IIT quality management issues after defining the research questions.Results:73 eligible studies were eventually included. It was found that the most frequently explored issues were a lack of guidance and support from methodological and statistical experts at the project initiation stage (60.9%), a lack of research funding or improper funding management at the project implementation stage (49.3%), mismanagement of archival materials at the project completion stage (70.0%). Meta-analysis results showed that after evidence synthesis, the incidence of irregular informed consent signing, untraceable raw data, delayed study progress, and protocol violation were all above 40%, but there was heterogeneity in the results.Conclusion:Some outstanding issues in IIT quality management need to be addressed. Future studies should conduct more practical research to obtain quantitative data, undertake demonstrative application of management protocols, further carry out pioneering exploration and research in the field of IIT quality management, and propose effective solutions and strategies to improve IIT quality.

Objective:To establish a multi-state Markov model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and explore the transition rule between the cumulative number of different chronic complications, estimate the transition probability and intensity between status, and explore the possible factors affecting the transition between status.Methods:A retrospective cohort study of 33 575 patients with T2DM was conducted. According to the baseline and the cumulative number of chronic complications during the follow-up period, the patients were classified based on five status: T2DM, one complication, two complications, three complications, four and above complication, indicated by S0, S1, S2, S3 and S4, respectively. A time-continuous and state-discrete multi-state irreversible Markov model was used for statistical analysis.Results:The study included 33 575 T2DM patients, and their average age was 60 years old, the median of follow-up length was 8 years. In these patients, 32 653 had no baseline complications. At the end of follow-up, the transition probabilities of S0→S1, S1→S2, S2→S3 and S3→S4 were 16.4%, 32.4%, 45.6% and 25.9%, respectively. The results of multivariate analysis showed that being female ( HR=0.919), less than 60 years old ( HR=0.929), higher fasting plasma glucose ( HR=1.601), lower high-density lipoprotein ( HR=1.087), higher total cholesterol ( HR=1.090),weekly exercise ( HR=0.897), vegetarian diet ( HR=0.852) and heavy diet ( HR=1.887) were the risk factors for S0 to S1. And being female ( HR=0.768), less than 60 years old ( HR=0.859) and lower high-density lipoprotein ( HR=1.160) were the risk factors for S1 to S2. Conclusions:The probability of multiple complications in T2DM patients increased over time, the transition intensity of S2→S3 was largest, followed by S1→S2. Therefore, we need to conduct both early and long-term indicators monitoring and disease prevention, strengthen the health education to improve patients' daily living habits at early stage of the illness, encourage patients to have moderate exercise and balanced diet, strengthen the monitoring of fasting blood- glucose, cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein levels to prevent the deterioration of the illness.