Objective To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Chinese version of Alcohol Withdrawal Scale (AWS). Methods Totally 175 patients diagnosed as alcohol dependence according to the criteria of ICD-10 were studied. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis was applied for examining interrater consistency and Cronbach' s α for internal consistency. Factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity. Correlation analysis between AWS and CGI,Revised Clinic Institute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome Scale(CIWA-Ar) were conducted to evaluate the criterion validity. Based on clinical criteria,ROC curve was calculated so as to test the discriminative ability and establish the cut-off point of the scale. Results ( 1 ) Reliability: ICC value was 0.93,and Cronbach's α was 0.83,which indicated good interrater and internal consistency. (2) Validity:the correlation coefficients of the two subscale with the total scale score were 0.78,0.83 respectively. The correlation coefficients between the subscale were 0. 81 and factor analysis revealed that each item of the scale had relatively high load on the primary factor (0.409 ～0.926). At the time of admission,the total score of the AWS was positively correlated with that of CGI ( r = 0.71, P < 0.05 ). The total score of the AWS also was positively correlated with that of CIWA-Ar ( r = 0. 86, P<0. 05). As treatment went on,total score of the AWS showed a downward trend,at the end of the first week,the total score of the AWS was positively correlated with that of CGI ( r = 0.62, P<0.05). (3)The cut-off point of AWS for mild alcohol withdrawal state was determined as ≥3. With this cut-off point,AWS had both high sensitivity (92.1% ) and specificity (73.5% ) ,and the area under curve (AUC) was 0. 91. The cut-off point of AWS for moderate withdrawal state was determined as ≥7, and the sensitivity and specificity of AWS were 94.3 % and 89.7 % respectively, with the AUC of 0.94. The cut-off point of AWS for severe withdrawal state was determined as ≥ 10. With this cut-off point AWS had both high sensitivity (94. 9% ) and high specificity (92.6% ) .with the AUC of 0.93. Conclusion AWS has good reliability and validity and can reflect the change of the disease and the efficacy of treatment.

Diarrhea is a common intestinal symptom in macaque.The corresponding intestinal lesions of macaque are mainly described at autopsy but less observed by colonoscopy.The aim of this study was to develop a colonoscopic technique and to obtain endoscopic images of the entire colon in macaques.Eight healthy adult macaques ( 5 males and 3 females) without diarrhea for 2 months, were fed Glauber’ s salt through nasogastric tubes.The colon cleanliness was well matched to the endoscopic observation of macaque colon.The procedure took 10-20 min for each animal.There was no obvious abnormality in the colon of four animals except some slight differences of mucosal structure from that of human beings.Small pieces of erosion and ulcer in the colons were observed in four macaques which presented mild diarrhea for less than 1 day, while a severe stenosis was observed in one of those four macaques.No animal died during and one week after the endoscopic procedure.Colonoscopy may safely performed in macaques.The images taken by colonoscopy may be important to establish diagnosis and treatment of colitis in macaques in time and to evaluate the efficacy of drug intervention as well.This technique is also helpful to provide qualified macaques for scientific researches.

OBJECTIVE:To establish the method for simultaneous determination of berberine hydrochloride and baicalin in Jianpi zhixiening granules. METHODS:HPLC switching walvelength method was adopted. The determination was performed on Hypersil BDS C18 column with mobile phase consisted of methanol-0.45％ phosphoric acid solution-triethylamine(50:49:1,V/V/V) at the flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 265 nm(berberine hydrochloride)and 280 nm(baicalin). The column temperature was set at 30 ℃,and sample size was 10 μL. RESULTS:The linear range of berberine hydrochloride and baicalin were 60.3-312.8 ng(r=0.9997)and 81.5-368.9 ng(r=0.9999). The limits of quantitation were 0.6668,0.7740 ng,andthe limits of detection were 0.2226,0.2580 ng,respectively. RSDs of intermediate precision,stability and repeatability tests were all lower than 1.0％. The recoveries were 96.48％-99.30％(RSD=1.06％,n=6) and 95.20％-99.39％(RSD=1.66％,n=6), respectively. RSDs of durability test were all lower than 2.0％. CONCLUSIONS:The method is simple, precise, stable, reproducible,accurate and durable. It can be used for simultaneous determination of berberine hydrochloride and baicalin in Jianpi zhixiening granules.

Esophageal cancer is an aggressive malignancy with high morbidity and poor prognosis. Symptoms of early esophageal cancer are insidious and difficult to detect, while advanced esophageal obstruction, lesion infiltration and metastasis seriously affect patients’ quality of life. Early detection and treatment can help to increase the survival chance of patients. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown remarkable success in diagnosis of esophageal cancer, highlighting the great potential of new AI-assisted diagnostic modalities. This paper aims to review recent progress of AI in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer and to prospect its clinical application.