Objective To provide a framework for understanding the need for a structured assessment of altered mental status (AMS) to better understand underlying causes of the mental status changes in adults and therefore potentially improve diagnostic skills and eventually management.Methods This is a prospective cohort observational study.We recruited consecutive adult patients with undifferentiated AMS at a single center tertiary care academic emergency department over 24 months.Demographical,clinical presentations,assessment approaches,cause factors,emergency treatments and outcomes were collected prospectively.Results One thousand nine hundred and thirty-four patients with AMS were recruited,this number of patients represented 5％ of the total ED census.Out of 1934 patients,1026 (53.1％) were male,908 (46.9％) were female.Mean age was (51.95 ± 15.71) years.Etiologic factors included neurological (n =641,35.0％),pharmacologic & toxicologic (n =421,23.0％),systemic and organic (n =266,14.5％),infectious (n =167; 9.1％),endocrine/metabolic (n =145,7.9％),psychiatric (n =71,3.9％),traumatic (n =38,2.1％),gynecologic and obstetric (n =35,1.9％).Total mortality rate was 8.1％ (n =156).The death rate was higher in elderly patients (≥ 60) than that in younger patients (10.8％ vs.6.9％,P =0.003).Conclusions The patient with AMS poses a challenge to physicians in ED.The most frequently encountered diagnostic category causing AMS were primary CNS disorders,intoxication,organ system dysfunction and endocrine/metabolic diseases.Fatality rate is very high.Prompt evaluation and treatment are essential to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with this condition.

Objective To prospectively analyze the impact of frailty on the short-term outcomes of coronary heart disease (CHD) and its related factors.Methods A total of 505 patients aged ≥65 years,with diagnosis of CHD in Cardiology Department and Geriatrics Department in our hospital were selected.Clinical data including geriatrics syndromes were collected by using Comprehensive Geriatrics Assessment (CGA).Frailty was defined according to the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS).The impact of the comorbid conditions on the risk was quantified by the coronary artery disease-specific index.Patients were followed up by clinic visit or telephone consultation.Following-up items included recurrence of all-cause mortality,recurrence of cardiovascular events,and unscheduled returned visit.The impact of frailty on the prognosis of coronary heart disease was analyzed by Cox regression.Results Of the 505 patients,221 patients (43.76％) were considered to be frail elderly,in whom 126 patients (24.95％) were assessed as moderately to severely frail elderly.The incidences of comorbidities and geriatrics syndrome including incontinence,fall history,visual impairment,hearing impairment,constipation,chronic pain,sleeping disorder,dental problems,anxiety or depression,and delirium were higher in frail patients than in non-frail patients[51.1％ (113/221) vs.30.6％ (87/ 284),31.2％ (69/221) vs.19.0％ (54/284),43.9％ (97/221) vs.29.9％ (85/284),49.3％ (109/221) vs.29.6％ (84/284),60.2％ (133/221) vs.33.8％ (96/284),62.0％ (137/221) vs.46.8％ (133/284),49.3％ (109/221) vs.37.7％ (107/284),79.2％ (175/221) vs.55.6％ (158/284),11.3％ (25/221) vs.6.0％ (17/284),2.7％ (6/221) vs.0 (0/284),x2=21.831,10.053,10.510,20.519,34.894,11.481,6.886,30.695,4.624,7.803,respectively,all P＜0.05].After adjusting for sex,age,severity of illness and other coexist factors,the Cox survival analysis showed that frailty was the independent risk predictor for the all-cause mortality and unscheduled return visit in CHD patients (HR=2.881 and 1.835,95％CI:1.591-5.215 and 1.458-2.311,both P＜0.001).Conclusions Comprehensive Geriatrics Assessment and Clinical Frail Scale are useful to evaluate the clinical features in elderly CHD patients.Frailty is the independent risk predictor for the short-term prognosis including all-cause mortality and unscheduled return visit in elderly CHD patients.

OBJECTIVETo establish a HPLC fingerprint for quality evaluation of fructus Euodiae rutaecarpa, and to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of its main constituents.

METHODThe 10 batches of samples were analyzed by HPLC linear gradient elution method and evaluated by similarity evaluation and system cluster analysis. The common peaks in chromatographic fingerprint were identified by LC-DAD-MS.

RESULTThe HPLC fingerprint of Euodiae Fructus showed 32 characteristic peaks, among them 13 peaks were identified, and 2 constituents were quantified.

CONCLUSIONThe HPLC fingerprint established could reflect the main constituents of Euodiae Fructus, and could combine with content determination to take an overall control of Euodiae Fructus.

Objective To construct a rating scale on the knowledge,attitude,and practice of geriatrics for 8-year clinical medical students and undergraduate nursing students,and to test the reliability and validity of the scale.Methods The Knowledge,Attitude,Practice(KAP)theory was used as a guided framework,relative literatures were reviewed,and topics for question answering were discussed by experts group.Then,a questionnaire was initially constructed.Five methods,including discrete trend method,Cronbach coefficient,t-test,correlation analysis,and factor analysis,were used to screen the attitude and practice items.The knowledge items were evaluated by experts.Items with over three exclusion criteria were deleted when combining the literal questions.The construct validity of the integrated scale was assessed by factor analysis.A pilot research was conducted by 100 eight-year medical students and nursing undergraduates selecting question entries,and the reliability and validity of the scale were examined.Results The scale consisted of three dimensions.A 43-item initiate questionnaire on the scale included 13 items for knowledge,11 for attitude,and 19 for practice.Two knowledge items were deleted according to expert evaluation.Seven items with more than three exclusion criteria were deleted after statistical analyses.Eventually,34 items were included in the questionnaire.The Cronbach α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.702.And three common factors were extracted according to exploratory factor analysis.Conclusions The reliability and validity of Geriatrics Knowledge,Attitude and Practice scale for eight year medical students and nursing undergraduates are acceptable,but the knowledge items should be recomposed.

Objective: To study the epidemiological characteristics of tsutsugamushi disease, and to confirm the existence of the disease's epidemic foci in Taizhou. Methods: From 2013 to 2014, Dongxing town hospital and Xingqiao town hospital were selected as specimen collection sites in Jingjiang city. Blood samples (5 ml) were collected from 40 patients with acute tsutsugamushi disease. A total of 59 rodents were captured with cage night method in the survey sites at 5, 7, 9, 10, and 11 months in 2013, from which, the spleen, liver, and kidney specimens were selected. Chigger mites were captured by small blackboard method and from the ears of the captured rodents. A total of 226 small blackboards were laid, 27 mites were captured, and the samples were grounded into suspension. Nested-polymerase chain reaction and cell and tissue culture techniques were used to test the specimen from the probable patients, host animals and chigger mites. Results: Among the 40 acute tsutsugamushi disease blood samples, 29 were found to meet the test requirements, 17 were positive for orientia tsutsugamushi nucleic acid with 59% of the positive rate, and 1 stran orientia tsutsugamushi was isolated. 59 rats were captured and the density of mice was 5.5%. Among them, there were 26 Mus musculus (2.4%), 18 Rattus flavipectus (1.7%) and 15 Smelly shrew (density 1.4%). 1 Smelly shrew was tested positive for orientia tsutsugamushi nucleic acid, and the negative results were found in the other rodent specimens. 27 Chigge mites were collected by small blackboard method and the density of mites was 0.12 for each blackboard, among which 3 larvae and 24 nymphs were found. 33 Chigger mites were collected from the ears of 3 Smelly shrew, and the density of the mite was 11 per mouse. All the captured Chigger mites were identified as Leptotrombidium scutellare and 1 group of specimens of Chigger mites from the external environment were positive for orientia tsutsugamushi nucleic acid. Conclusion There was a high density of mice in the epidemic area from May to November and the species of the chigger mites were Chigger mites in Taizhou. The nucleic acid of the oriental tsutsugamushi was detected in the patients with acute scrub typhus, rodents and vectors. According to the above-mentioned results, it was considered that the scrub typhus epidemic area of Taizhou city has the natural foci of scrub typhus.

Objective To explore the rules of acupoint selection and manipulation application of Tuina in the treatment of diabetes peripheral neuropathy(DPN)with data mining technology.Methods The clinical research literature of Tuina for DPN from October 2022 was selected by searching four Chinese databases that CNKI,WanFang,VIP and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database.Using the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance assistance platform software,analyze and summarize the rules of selecting acupoints and applying manipulations in the treatment of DPN with Tuina.Results A total of 110 articles were included,including 65 acupoints and 33 manipulations.The acupoints with the highest frequency are Zusanli(ST 36),Sanyinjiao(SP 6),Taixi(KI 3),Yongquan(KI 1),Taichong(LR 3),Yanglingquan(GB 34),etc.The meridians mainly include Taiyin Spleen Meridian of Foot,Yangming Stomach Meridian of Foot,Taiyang Bladder Meridian of Foot and Shaoyin Kidney Meridian of Foot.Five-shu Points,Lower He-sea Points and Yuan-primary Points are commonly used specific points.The acupoints are mostly distributed in the lower limbs.The categories of Tuina manipulations mainly include squeezing-pressing manipulations,pushing rolling manipulations and composite manipulations.The Tuina manipulations mainly include kneading manipulation,pressing manipulation,point-pressing manipulation,pressing-kneading manipulation and twisting manipulation with both palms.Conclusion The acupoint selection and manipulation application of Tuina in treating DPN have certain rules,and the main treatment principles are to regulate the organs and dredge collaterals,and to replenish qi and promote blood circulation,which can provide objective basis for clinical treatment.

Objective:To explore the risk factors of urinary incontinence (UI) in China by using random forest algorithm, and to evaluate the predictive effect of each risk factor on UI.Methods:A baseline survey with a multistage stratified cluster sampling design was conducted between February 2014 and January 2016, and followed up by telephone from June to December 2018. A total of 55 477 adult women from six provinces of China participated the survey. According to the ratio of 1:1, under sampling method was used to randomly select the same number of women as UI from the non UI women. The data were randomly divided into training set and verification set according to 7:3. The training set was used to establish the random forest model, which including the candidate variables with P<0.2 in univariate analysis, and the verification set was used to verify the predictive effects. Results:A total of 30 658 patients (55.26%, 30 658/55 477) completed the follow-up, the median follow-up time was 3.7 years. Among the 24 985 women without UI at baseline, 1 757 (7.03%, 1 757/24 985) had UI at followed up, including 1 117 (4.47%, 1 117/24 985) with stress UI, 243 (0.97%, 243/24 985) with urgency UI and 397 (1.59%, 397/24 985) with mixed UI. When fixed the number of features as 2 and the number of random trees as 300 in the random forest model, the out of bag error rate estimation was the lowest; with such parameter settings, the classification accuracy was 64.3%, the sensitivity was 64.2%, and the specificity was 64.4%. The top10 predictive UI factors that screening by the variable importance measure in random forest model were obtained as follows: age, parity, delivery pattern, body mass index (BMI), menopause, history of diabetes, education level, history of pelvic surgery, regions, and marital status.Conclusion:We identified the top10 predictive UI factors that screening by the variable importance in random forest model as follows: age, parity, delivery pattern, BMI, menopause, history of diabetes, education level, history of pelvic surgery, regions, and marital status.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of the combination of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation and left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) on cardiac function and the success rate of AF ablation. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 56 patients with AF undergoing a one-stop procedure for AF ablation and LAAC in our hospital between May, 2015 and May, 2019. Propensity score matching (PSM) at the ratio of 1:1 was used to select 56 control patients undergoing AF ablation at high risk of stroke, for matching with the hybrid procedure group. The perioperative complications, thromboembolic events, recurrence of atrial arrhythmia and cardiac function were compared between the groups. RESULTS: The two groups of patients were comparable for age, gender, BMI, duration and type of AF, concomitant diseases, CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores ( CONCLUSIONS The combination of AF ablation and LAAC is safe but does not improve the success rate of AF ablation. The one-stop procedure can improve cardiac function of the patients, but AF ablation alone can achieve better improvement of cardiac function.
Atrial Appendage/surgery* ; Atrial Fibrillation/surgery* ; Catheter Ablation ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

Existing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-related databases are still insufficient in data standardization, integrity and precision, and need to be updated urgently. Herein, an Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine version 2.0 (ETCM v2.0, http://www.tcmip.cn/ETCM2/front/#/) was constructed as the latest curated database hosting 48,442 TCM formulas recorded by ancient Chinese medical books, 9872 Chinese patent drugs, 2079 Chinese medicinal materials and 38,298 ingredients. To facilitate the mechanistic research and new drug discovery, we improved the target identification method based on a two-dimensional ligand similarity search module, which provides the confirmed and/or potential targets of each ingredient, as well as their binding activities. Importantly, five TCM formulas/Chinese patent drugs/herbs/ingredients with the highest Jaccard similarity scores to the submitted drugs are offered in ETCM v2.0, which may be of significance to identify prescriptions/herbs/ingredients with similar clinical efficacy, to summarize the rules of prescription use, and to find alternative drugs for endangered Chinese medicinal materials. Moreover, ETCM v2.0 provides an enhanced JavaScript-based network visualization tool for creating, modifying and exploring multi-scale biological networks. ETCM v2.0 may be a major data warehouse for the quality marker identification of TCMs, the TCM-derived drug discovery and repurposing, and the pharmacological mechanism investigation of TCMs against various human diseases.