Li Shi-zhen's contribution for eight extra-channel theory and effects of this theory on medicine, and the author's experiences on clinical application of this theory are introduced. It is held that the eight extra-channel theory, one of the essence of TCM, has wide application values in resolving clinical practical problems.
Books ; Humans ; Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Discuss contribution of Classic on 81 Medical Problems to acupuncture and moxibustion science, and emphatically introduce theories of Eight Extra Channels, eight Hui-points, five Back-shu points, clinical application of source points, theory of Back-shu and Front-mu points, and special needling technique, etc., which provide thinking and methods for the modern workers of acupuncture and moxibustion to study and research classical works of TCM in combination with clinical practice.
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Therapy ; China ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; Science

OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effect of acupoint catgut embedding on hypomenorrhea.

METHODSThe patients were divided into an acupoint catgut embedding group and an electroacupuncture group. They were treated respectively by acupoint catgut embedding and electroacupuncture at Qihai (CV 6), Guanyuan (CV 4), Zigong (EX-CA 1), Ciliao (BL 32) , etc. The effects of the two therapies on the menses amount in different therapeutic periods were compared and their therapeutic effects were analyzed.

RESULTSThe total effective rate was 100.0% in the acupoint catgut embedding group and 95.0% in the electroacupuncture group with no significant difference. One month and two months after treatment, the acupoint catgut embedding group in improving degree of the menses amount was better than the electroacupuncture group.

CONCLUSIONBoth acupoint catgut embedding and electroacupuncture can effectively treat hypomenorrhea, but the former more rapidly produces the effect and has a better short-term therapeutic effect.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Humans ; Menstruation Disturbances ; therapy ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVEType 2 diabetes has been recently recognized as an important risk factor for cognitive decline of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). But the roles of hyperinsulinemia (HI) and insulin resistance (IR) in the development of AD are still controversial. This study was designed to evaluate whether HI or IR influenced the cognitive functions of older cohort.

METHODSThe cognitive functions of 328 consecutive elderly patients were evaluated with a battery of cognitive rating scales. Their fasting blood glucose (FBG) and fasting insulin (FINS) were analyzed and IR was calculated with modified-Homa. The cognitive scores in different groups and the correlation of cognitive functions with HI or IR were analyzed.

RESULTSIn our study, there were 180 participants with HI and 148 without HI, and 192 with IR and 136 without IR. The participants with HI showed worse cognitive functions than those without HI in MMSE, MOCA, CDR, orientation, delayed memory, and attention/calculation domains. Similarly, the elderly with IR had lower cognitive scores than those without IR in MMSE, MOCA, CDR, GDS, orientation, delayed memory, and attention/calculation domains. The insulin levels and Homa IR had negative correlation with the scores of MMSE and delayed memory, not only in the model 1 adjusted for FBG and diabetes history, but also in the model 2 adjusted for all nine demographic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONHI and IR are important risk factors for cognitive decline of the elderly, especially for the dysfunctions in delayed memory domains.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cognition ; Cognition Disorders ; blood ; etiology ; Female ; Homeostasis ; Humans ; Hyperinsulinism ; blood ; complications ; psychology ; Insulin ; blood ; Insulin Resistance ; Male

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy of abdominal acupuncture for adhesion-stage shoulder periarthritis.

METHODSOne hundred and fifty-seven cases of shoulder periarthritis were randomly divided into an abdominal acupuncture group (79 cases) and a body acupuncture group (78 cases). The abdominal acupuncture was applied at Zhongwan (CV 12), Shangqu (KI 17) and Huaroumen (ST 24) in the abdominal acupuncture group while conventional acupuncture was applied at Jianyu (LI 15), Jianliao (TE 14) and Jianzhen (SI 9) in the body acupuncture group. The treatment was given three times a week for both groups and ten times made an observation course. Before and after treatment, visual analogue scale (VAS) was adopted for pain assessment and functional activity score (Mallet score) was used for shoulder joint function assessment for all the patients. Also the efficacy of both groups was compared.

RESULTSThe total effective rate in the abdominal acupuncture group was 92.4% (73/79), which was superior to 71.8% (56/78) in the body acupuncture group. The score of VAS after the treatment was 2.58 +/- 1.64 in the abdominal acupuncture group while 3.12 +/- 1.93 in the body acupuncture group, which had no statistical significance between each other (P > 0.05). The functional activity score after the treatment was 8.34 +/- 3.02 in the abdominal acupuncture group while 7.49 +/- 3.36 in the body acupuncture group, which had no statistical significance between each other (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe abdominal acupuncture is an ideal treatment for adhesion-stage shoulder periarthritis, which has better total efficacy than conventional acupuncture. It achieves the same effect in relieving pain and improving functional activity as conventional acupuncture, but also has an advantage at fast selection of acupoint and less discomfort of needling sensation.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Periarthritis ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Shoulder ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVETo observe the association between adiponectin and small dense low-density lipoprotein (sLDL-c) in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Furthermore, we sought to determine the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) rs1501299 (+276G/T), rs266729 (-11365C/G) and the incidence of CAD.

METHODSConsecutive subjects with chest discomfort were examined by coronary angiography and divided into non-CAD [n = 250, 147 male, mean age (60.26 ± 7.52) years] and CAD [n = 267, 153 male, mean age (60.79 ± 9.63) years] groups. Blood samples were collected from all participants following an overnight fasting for at least 12 hours. Plasma adiponectin levels were measured by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The serum levels of sLDL-C and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) were determined by ELISA. Genotypes in rs1501299 and rs266729 of the adiponectin were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

RESULTS1. The adiponectin levels were significantly lower [(306.17 ± 74.52) mg/L vs. (321.78 ± 86.28) mg/L], whereas sLDL-C and ox-LDL levels were significantly higher [(276.30 ± 45.55) ng/L vs. (249.00 ± 32.02) ng/L and (545.06 ± 115.46) µg/L vs. (497.74 ± 106.09) µg/L, P < 0.05] in CAD group than non-CAD group. 2. Adiponectin level was negatively associated with sLDL-C, whereas sLDL-C positively correlated with ox-LDL in all subjects. 3. Genotype distribution and allele frequencies of rs1501299 and rs266729 were similar between CAD and non-CAD subjects and not related to the serum levels of adiponectin, sLDL-C and ox-LDL.

CONCLUSIONSReduced adiponectin and increased sLDL-C were independent risk factors for coronary artery disease. Genetic polymorphisms in rs1501299 and rs266729 were not linked with coronary artery disease.

Adiponectin ; blood ; genetics ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Coronary Artery Disease ; blood ; genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Lipoproteins, LDL ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Risk Factors

Objective To study the serum leptin and adiponectin levels among relatively healthy older people and their association with traditional cardiovascular risk factors.Methods Personal medical history and blood sample were collected from 1515 older people of Guangzhou.Fasting serum glucose,lipids,leptin and adiponectin were measured.Results(1)In relatively healthy older adults aged 50 or above,from Guangzhou,the following data were seen:serum leptin levels(x-±s)in men and women were(3.90±2.36)ng/ml and(12.17 ±2.01)ng/ml respectively;serum adiponectin levels in men and women were(5.33 ± 2.78)mg/L and(7.18 ± 2.58)mg/L respectively.(2)Serum leptin and adiponectin level increased with age.After adjusting for body mass index,the trend for serum leptin level in men(P＜0.001)and adiponectin level in women(P＜0.05)were significantly associated with age.(3)No association was found between cigarette smoking and levels of leptin or adiponectin in both men and women after adjusting for age(P from 0.09 to 0.76).(4)In both men and women,serum leptin and adiponectin levels were positively associated with waist circumference/body mass index,systolic blood pressure,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride(P from 0.04 to＜0.001).In men,leptin was also significantly associated with the increase of diastolic blood pressure and glucose but decreased with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(P from 0.03 to 0.02).(5)Decreased adiponectin level was associated with increased waist circumference and triglyceride in both men and women(P from 0.003 to＜0.001)and with the increased body mass index,fasting plasma glucose as well as with decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in men(P from 0.05 to＜0.001)but with increased systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol in women(P from 0.05 to 0.006).Conclusion In Guangzhou city,among relatively healthy older adults aged 50 or above,their serum leptin and adiponectin levels were lower in men than in women.Serum leptin level in men and adiponectin level in women were significantly associated with the increase of age.Increased leptin and decreased adiponectin levels were associated with increased traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

AIM:To analyze the imageological changes of acute and chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) by 2 types of optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS:A retrospective analysis was performed, inclu-ding data of 60 eyes from 56 patients with CSC diagnosed by conventional eye examination, fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA), which were divided into acute group (28 eyes of 28 patients) and chronic group (32 eyes of 28 patients) according to imageological examinations and duration (6 months). Optical coher-ence tomography angiography (OCTA) and spectral domain optical coherence tomography ( SD-OCT) were performed to study the vessel density of the chorioretinal leyers and the integrity of the outer retinal structure. RESULTS:In the pa-tients with chronic CSC, OCTA in 4 eyes ( 12.50% ) revealed the presence of a distinct choroidal neovascularization (CNV), while no evidence of CNV in ICGA was observed. However, no sign of CNV in acute CSC group both on OCTA and ICGA was found. The occurrence of 'dark areas' in chronic CSC was much higher than that in acute CSC ( P <0.01). In addition, the integrity of the outer retinal structure (defined as tissue between external limiting membrane and retinal pigment epithelium) in acute group was significantly better than that in chronic group ( P <0.01). CONCLU-SION:Our study demonstrates the existing secondary CNV that is not demonstrated by ICGA in the chronic CSC patients, and the different characteristics of retinochoroid structures between acute and chronic CSC in OCTA and SD-OCT are ob- served. Chronic CSC has more severe structural changes.

Objective To explore the clinical efficacy of donepezil hydrochloride in the treatment of elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and changes of their electroencephalogram (EEG) and event related potential (ERP) P300. Methods One hundred and fifteen patients with MCI,admitted to our hospital from January 2009 to March 2010,were randomly divided into treatment group (hydrochloride donepezil combined with ginkgo biloba,n=58) and control group (single-use ginkgo biloba,n=57).Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores,changes of P300 and EEG were used to assess the effect of donepezil hydrochloride. Results After 12 months of treatment,MMSE scores in both groups improved,and the MMSE scores in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group or treatment group before treatment (P＜0.05). The abnormal rate of EEG in the treatment group (25.86％) was significantly lower than that in the control group (45.61％),and the difference was statistically significance (P＜0.05).The latency of P300 was decreased and the amplitude was increased in both groups,but more obvious changes were observed in the treatment group as compared with those in the control group and treatment group before treatment (P＜0.05).The clinical efficacy of treatment group was significantly better than that of control group (P＜0.05). Conclusion As compared with ginkgo biloba,donepezil can significant improve the treatment efficacy of cognitive ability in patients with MCI and the state of brain electrical activity,which indicates that donepezil is valuable in the treatment of elderly MCI.

OBJECTIVEEvidence suggests that type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with an increased risk of dementia and that glucose variability is an independent risk factor for diabetic complications. This study investigated the relationship between glucose excursion and cognitive function in aged T2DM patients.

METHODSA total of 248 aged T2DM patients wore a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) for 3 days in order to evaluate glucose excursion, including mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGE) and mean of daily difference (MODD). All subjects were evaluated with a number of accepted cognitive function tests, including the mini-mental status examination (MMSE). The relationship between MAGE and MODD and performance on these cognitive tests was assessed.

RESULTSThe MAGE and MMSE score were negatively correlated, likewise with the correlation between MODD and MMSE. Liner multivariate regression analysis showed that MAGE and MODD were also negatively related to MMSE independent of age, sex, glycemic control, hypertension, smoking, or coronary heart disease history.

CONCLUSIONGlucose excursion is related to cognitive function in aged T2DM patients. Elevated glucose excursion decreased the MMSE score, which reflects general cognitive function. Thus, therapy aimed at controlling glucose excursion may be beneficial for maintaining cognitive function in aged T2DM patients.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Blood Glucose ; metabolism ; Cognition ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; blood ; psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis