ObjectiveTo observe the clinical effect of Mahuang Xixin Fuzitang combined with acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of localized scleroderma. MethodA total of 95 patients with localized scleroderma treated in Wuhan No. 1 Hospital from September 2019 to October 2021 were assigned into a control group （47 patients） and an observation group （48 patients） by random number table method. The control group was treated with Centella triterpenes tablets and heparin sodium cream， and the observation group was additionally treated with Mahuang Xixin Fuzitang combined with acupuncture and moxibustion. Both groups were treated for 8 weeks， and the clinical effect was compared between groups. The traditional Chinese medicine（TCM） syndrome score （local skin sclerosis， loss of skin texture， darkening of skin pigment， scaly dry skin， etc.）， serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor （sIL-2R） and tumor necrosis factor-alpha （TNF-α）， erythrocyte sedimentation rate （ESR）， and eosinophil count （EO） were compared between before and after treatment as well as between groups. Additionally， the adverse reactions were recorded. ResultThe observation group had higher total effective rate than the control group ［95.83% （46/48） vs. 82.98% （39/47）， χ²=4.166 4， P<0.05］. Before treatment， the TCM syndrome score， sIL-2R， TNF-α， ESR， and EO showed no significant differences between the two groups. The 8 weeks of treatment improved the TCM syndrome score， sIL-2R， TNF-α， ESR， and EO. Moreover， the observation group was superior to the control group in these indicators （P<0.05）. During the treatment， the observation group showed 1 case of abnormal liver function and 1 case of nausea and vomiting， and the control group had 1 case of nausea and vomiting， 1 case of abnormal renal function， and 1 case of abnormal liver function. The total adverse reactions of the observation group （4.17%） and the control group （6.38%） had no significant difference （χ²=0.233 9， P=0.062 86）. ConclusionMahuang Xixin Fuzitang combined with acupuncture and moxibustion is safe and effective in the treatment of localized scleroderma.

Transrectal contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is an important examination for rectal tumors. The inhomogeneity of the CEUS images has important clinical significance. However, there is no objective method to evaluate this index. In this study, a method based on gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) is proposed to extract texture features of images and grade these images according the inhomogeneity. Specific processes include compressing the gray level of the image, calculating the texture statistics of gray level co-occurrence matrix, combining feature selection and principal component analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction, and training and validating quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). After ten cross-validation, the overall accuracy rate of machine classification was 87.01%, and the accuracy of each level was as follows: Grade Ⅰ 52.94%, Grade Ⅱ 96.48% and Grade Ⅲ 92.35% respectively. The proposed method has high accuracy in judging grade Ⅱ and Ⅲ images, which can help to identify the grade of inhomogeneity of contrast-enhanced ultrasound images of rectal tumors, and may be used to assist clinical doctors in judging the grade of inhomogeneity of contrast-enhanced ultrasound of rectal tumors.
Discriminant Analysis ; Humans ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Ultrasonography