By analyzing and summarizing the previous research results regarding acupuncture for insomnia, factors influencing the efficacy of acupuncture on insomnia were discussed, and a summary was made from aspects of age, gender, duration of insomnia, use of medication, types of syndrome differentiation, acupoint selection, acupoint combination, acupuncture timing, etc. With respect to the influencing factors, precautions during the clinical syndrome differentiation were briefly reviewed, and the treatment plan of acupuncture for insomnia was optimized, which could provide new methods and thoughts for clinical and scientific research regarding acupuncture for insomnia.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Sleep ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; physiopathology ; therapy

Objective To evaluate the differential diagnostic value of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(DCE-MRI) and diffusion weighted imaging(DWI) in adenosis of the breast and breast cancer.Methods 30 cases of adenosis and 45 cases of breast cancer with pathological verification were scanned with DCE-MRI and DWI.The MRI features of the lesions were analyzed, including shape,margin,T2WI singal, features of enhancement, time intensity curve(TIC) type, early enhancement rate(EER),peak time, background enhancement and ADC value.Results The irregular margin with or without spiculation and the heterogeneous enhancement were mostly seen in breast cancer (P=0.002,P=0.009, respectively).The TIC type Ⅲ, EER larger than 100% and peak time within 2 minutes were mostly seen in breast cancer(P<0.001).The ADC of breast cancer and adenosis were (1.03±0.24)×10-3mm2/s and (1.34±0.30)×10-3mm2/s respectively(P<0.001).The features of shape,T2WI singal and background enhancement had no statistical significance between adenosis and cancer(P>0.05).Conclusion DCE-MRI combined with DWI will be helpful to the diagnosis of breast lesions.

Objective Differentiation of breast fibroadenoma from breast cancer is of great importance. The purpose of the ar-ticle was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) in the differentiation of breast fibroadenoma from breast cancer in DCE-TIC ( dynamic contrast enchancement-time intensity curve) platform type ( typeⅡ) . Methods Between March 2014 and May 2016, 64 patients were included in our study, 19 patients with breast fibroadenoma and 45 patients with breast cancer. All the patients underwent DCE-MRI ( dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging) examination before operation. Morpho-logic characteristics, hemodynamic characteristics, EER ( early enhancement rate) and ADC ( apparent diffusion coefficient) values were calculated and statistically compared. Results Among 19 cases of breast fibroadenoma, 9 cases were round or ovoid, 8 cases are lobulated, 2 cases were irregular, 15 cases with clear boundary, 14 cases in mammary gland vascular enlargement, 2 cases of slowinflows, 4 cases of moderate inflows, 13 cases of rapid inflows, and the average ADC value was ( 1. 47 ± 0. 38) × 10-3 mm2/s. Low signal separation present in 11 lesions of fibroadenoma. Among the 45 cases of breast cancer, 17 cases were round or ovoid, 7 cases were lobulat-ed, 21 cases were irregular, 11 cases with clear boundary, 38 cases of mammary gland vascular enlargement, 1 case of slow inflows, 5 ca-ses of moderate inflows, 39 cases of rapid inflows, and the averageADC values was (0.98±0.40)×10-3mm2/s. The shape, (χ2=9.176), margin (χ2=16.452), EER(χ2=18.489) and ADC between breast fibroadenoma and breast cancer were of significantly difference. No significant difference was found in the increased and enlarged blood vessels. The success of ADC values in differentation of breast fibroadenoma from breast cancer was statistically significant( P<0.001), and the area under the curve(AUC)of the ROC, sensitivity and specificity of VE were 94.7% and 71.1%. Conclusion Breast fibroadenoma are in fast inflows in the early phase on the DCE-MRI, and there are differences in morphologic characteristics and mass enhancement ways between patients with breast fibroadenoma and breast cancer. Morphologic characteristics combined with inter-nal low signal separation contribute to the differentiation of breast fibroadenoma from breast cancer.

POEMS syndrome is a kind of plasma cell disorder with multi-system involved,whose character includes polyneuropathy,organomegaly,endocrinopathy,monoclonal plasma cell disorder,as well as skin changes.Its pathogenesis is not clear,with low incidence,high misdiagnosis rate and high disability rate.There are still a variety of dispute on its diagnosis.Here this article reviewed the diagnostic progress of POEMS syndrome recent years.

POEMS syndrome is a disease associated with plasma cell paraneoplastic syndrome. There is no unified standard treatment, and often general symptomatic treatment, drug treatment, radiotherapy, autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, etc. is used. The latest treatment progress of POEMS syndrome is reviewed.

Objective:To investigate the risk of stroke in elderly hypertensive(HTN)patients with varying baseline triglyceride glucose(TYG)index, and to identify the risk factors associated with stroke in this population.Methods:This study was a prospective cohort study that included 459 elderly patients with hypertension who were admitted to Beijing Anzhen Hospital from January 2018 to January 2020.The patients were divided into four groups based on their quartile of TYG index: Q1 group(TYG index≤8.02, 114 cases), Q2 group(8.028.85, 115 cases). The study compared the baseline clinical data and incidence of stroke(hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke)after two years of follow-up among the four groups, and analyzed the risk factors of stroke using Cox regression analyses.Results:This study examined 459 elderly patients with hypertension, of which 251(54.7%)were male and 208(45.3%)were female, with an average age of(71.7 ± 6.2)years(65-79 years). The study found significant differences among the four groups in various factors( P<0.05 for all). The study followed up with patients for a median of 33 months, 55 cases were lost to follow-up.Out of the remaining patients, 10.9% experienced stroke, with 3.7% being hemorrhagic stroke and 7.2% being ischemic stroke.The occurrence of stroke was observed in 5.3%, 8.7%, 13.0%, and 16.2% of patients in the Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 groups, respectively.The results of Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that the risk of stroke increased gradually as the quartile increased.Specifically, compared to the Q1 group, the risk of stroke increased by 1.016 times(95% CI: 0.933-1.106, P=0.715), 1.264 times(95% CI: 1.067-1.497, P=0.007), and 1.472 times(95% CI: 1.119-1.936, P=0.006)in the Q2, Q3, and Q4 groups, respectively.Notably, both Q3 and Q4 groups showed a significant increase in the risk of ischemic stroke( HR=1.313, 95% CI: 1.016-1.697, P=0.037; HR=1.509, 95% CI: 1.113-2.046, P=0.008), while the Q4 group showed a significant increase in the risk of hemorrhagic stroke( HR=1.132, 95% CI: 1.021-1.255, P=0.019). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that male( HR=1.336), smoking history( HR=1.485), hyperlipidemia( HR=1.216), previous stroke( HR=1.547), sleep apnea( HR=1.484), diastolic blood pressure( HR=1.114), hemoglobin( HR=0.962), albumin/creatinine ratio( HR=1.318), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol( HR=1.125), TYG index( HR=1.293), left ventricular mass index( HR=1.103), and anti-platelet therapy( HR=0.874)were all found to be independent risk factors for stroke. Conclusions:In elderly patients with hypertension, there is a significant positive correlation between TYG index and stroke risk, particularly ischemic stroke.This suggests that TYG index could be clinically valuable in improving cerebrovascular risk stratification.

Objective:To evaluate the effect of Empagliflozin on the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events(MACE)in elderly patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction(HFrEF)over a period of 1 year.Additionally, the study will analyze the influence of frailty on MACE.Methods:This study is a retrospective analysis of 577 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction(HFrEF)who were consecutively admitted to Beijing Anzhen Hospital from January 2018 to December 2020.The patients were divided into three groups according to frailty index(FI): non-frailty(FI ≤ 0.210, 301 cases), moderate frailty(FI 0.211-0.310, 184 cases), and severe frailty(FI>0.311, 92 cases).Additionally, a control group of 300 elderly HFrEF patients with T2DM who did not receive Sodium glucose co-transporter type 2(SGLT-2)inhibitors was included.The MACE outcomes of different patient groups who were followed up for a year after discharge were compared.The composite outcomes of cardiac death, worsening heart failure readmission, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and non-fatal stroke were recorded and analyzed.The study also includes Cox regression analysis of relevant factors that may affect MACE outcomes.Results:A total of 877 patients were monitored for a period of 7-14 months, with a median follow-up duration of(11.4±2.3)months.Out of these patients, 47(5.4%)were lost to follow-up.During the follow-up period, 108 patients(18.7%)in the Empagliflozin group experienced major adverse cardiovascular events(MACE), which included 43 patients(7.5%)with heart failure readmission, 29 patients(5.0%)with non-fatal myocardial infarction, 23 patients(4.0%)with non-fatal stroke, and 13 patients(2.3%)with cardiovascular death.The control group had 73 cases of major adverse cardiac events(MACE), which included 33 cases(11.0%)of readmission due to heart failure, 18 cases(6.0%)of non-fatal myocardial infarction, 14 cases(4.7%)of non-fatal stroke, and 8 cases(2.7%)of cardiovascular death.The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed significant differences in the risk of readmission for heart failure exacerbation and MACE among the groups.The study found that the Empagliflozin group had a significantly lower risk of MACE(18.7% vs.24.3%, HR=0.792, 95% CI: 0.639-0.982, P=0.033)compared to the control group.Additionally, as frailty level increased, the risk of MACE in each empagliflozin subgroup also increased significantly(14.6% vs.19.6% vs.30.4%, P<0.001).The moderate and severe frailty groups had a 1.342 times( HR=1.342, 95% CI: 1.116-1.768, P=0.022)and 1.933 times( HR=1.933, 95% CI: 1.207-3.854, P=0.019)higher risk of MACE compared to the non-frailty group.The study conducted a multivariate Cox regression analysis and found that several factors were independently associated with the risk of MACE, including age( HR=1.164), duration of heart failure( HR=1.225), B-type natriuretic peptide level( HR=1.221), albumin/creatinine ratio( HR=1.158), renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blocker( HR=0.891), frailty index( HR=1.764), and empagliflozin( HR=0.792)( P<0.05 for all). Conclusions:Empagliflozin has been shown to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events(MACE)in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction(HFrEF).However, it is important to note that the cardiovascular benefits of SGLT-2 inhibitors may be affected by frailty in elderly patients with heart failure.As frailty worsens, the risk of readmission and MACE may increase significantly.

Objective:To investigate the value of intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics features of multi-parameter MRI in evaluation of the status of human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 in breast cancer.Methods:The clinical, pathological and imaging data of 340 patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer in Henan Provincial People′s Hospital from September 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively collected. All patients were female, 48 (42, 55) years old. All patients underwent multi-parameter breast MRI before surgery, including dynamic contrast-enhanced T 1WI (DCE-T 1WI), fat-suppressed T 2WI (T 2WI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). The region of interest (ROI) for lesions were manually delineated and the segmented ROIs were zoomed in ring shape by 4 mm to acquire ROI intra and ROI prei, respectively. Then six sets of radiomics features were extracted from ROI intra and ROI prei of DCE-T 1WI, T 2WI and DWI. The cases were divided into a training set (272 cases) and a test set (68 cases) by stratified sampling at a ratio of 4∶1. The Mann-Whitney U test, Select K Best and minimum absolute contraction and selection operator were used for feature selection of the 6 sets of radiomics features. The feature subsets after reduction were used to construct independent and combined radiomics signatures with support vector machine algorithm to predict the HER2 status of breast cancer. Receiver operating characteristic curve was generated and area under curve (AUC) was calculated to compare the prediction performance of different models. Results:Of the 340 patients, 80 were HER2-positive and 260 were HER2-negative. Among the radiomics signatures based on single sequence, the DWI peri showed the best performance in predicting HER2 status of breast cancer, with an AUC of 0.678 for the test set. Among the combination of intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics signatures based on same sequence, the DWI intra+DWI peri had the highest prediction value, achieving an AUC of 0.774 for the testing set. Among the intratumoral or peritumoral radiomics signatures derived from two different sequences, the DCE-T 1WI intra+DWI intra and T 2WI peri+DWI peri showed the best predictive performance, yielding AUC of 0.766 and 0.769 in the testing set, respectively. Among the combination of intratumoral or peritumoral radiomics signatures derived from all 3 sequences or combinations of all features, the DCE-T 1WI intra+T 2WI intra+DWI intra+DCE-T 1WI peri+T 2WI peri+DWI peri obtained the highest prediction efficiency, with an AUC of 0.913 for the testing set. Conclusion:The radiomics features of intratumoral and peritumoral regions based on multi-parameter MRI have a certain value in non-invasive evaluation of HER2 status of breast cancer, which can help clinicians to provide scientific basis for decision-making of targeted therapy in patients with breast cancer.

Objective:To investigate clinical efficacy and safety of dupilumab in the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) .Methods:An ambispective study was conducted on 123 AD patients treated with dupilumab in Department of Dermatology, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from July 2020 to March 2022, clinical data were collected, and efficacy and safety of dupilumab were evaluated. Primary outcomes included scores of eczema area and severity index (EASI) , patient-oriented eczema measure (POEM) , peak pruritus numerical rating scale (NRS) and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) before and after 4-, 8-, 12- and 16-week treatment, and adverse reactions and events were recorded. Comparison of scores before and after treatment was performed using paired t test or repeated measures analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test was used for the comparison of efficacy among patients with different types of skin lesions or different IgE levels, and multiple regression model based on robust standard errors was used to analyze factors influencing the efficacy. Results:Among the 123 AD patients, 107 were enolled into the efficacy analysis, and 85 (79.44%) completed at least 4 weeks of treatment, including 6 (7.06%) achieving EASI75 and 23 (27.06%) achieving EASI50, and the EASI, NRS, POEM, DLQI scores (10.41 ± 6.72, 4.12 ± 1.74, 8.60 ± 4.29, 7.81 ± 4.38, respectively) significantly decreased compared with those before treatment (18.08 ± 10.69, 7.21 ± 2.01, 16.88 ± 5.74, 12.95 ± 5.95, respectively; all P < 0.001) in the 85 patients. Among the 107 patients, 47 (43.93%) completed at least 16 weeks of treatment. Among the 47 patients, 23 (82.14%) of 28 adults and 17 (89.47%) of 19 adolescents and children achieved 75% or greater improvement in EASI score; the EASI, NRS, POEM and DLQI scores before the treatment all significantly differred from those 4, 8, 12, 16 weeks after the treatment (all P < 0.001) , and all the scores were significantly lower at weeks 4, 8, 12 and 16 than at the previous adjacent time points (all P < 0.05) . At week 4 during the treatment, the EASI improvement rate was significantly lower in the AD patients with prurigo nodularis than in those without ( U = 151.00, P = 0.006) , while there was no significant difference in the EASI improvement rate between the AD patients with xeroderma and those without ( P > 0.05) ; at week 16 during the treatment, there was no significant difference in the EASI improvement rate between patients with prurigo nodularis or xeroderma and those without (both P > 0.05) . Multiple regression analysis based on robust standard errors at week 16 showed that the improvement degree in the EASI score was not correlated with the type of skin lesions ( β = 3.20, P = 0.075) , but correlated with age ( β = -0.22, P = 0.030) , whether patients were in adulthood ( β = 9.54, P = 0.049) , immediate family history ( β = 7.46, P = 0.017) ; the improvement degree in the NRS score was correlated with the type of skin lesions ( β = 0.55, P = 0.032) , age ( β = -0.04, P = 0.033) , weight ( β = -0.05, P = 0.020) , whether patients were in adulthood ( β = 2.06, P = 0.003) and whether patients received combined treatment with antihistamines ( β = -1.91, P = 0.001) . Adverse reactions: among the 123 patients, 6 (4.88%) developed conjunctivitis, and 2 (1.63%) developed facial erythema. Adverse events: vitiligo-like changes occurred on the right forehead of 1 patient, and 3 patients discontinued the treatment with dupilumab due to Henoch-Sch?nlein purpura, distal axonal damage in peripheral nerves in both upper limbs, and epilepsy, respectively. The causal relationship between these adverse events and dupilumab was unclear. Conclusion:Dupilumab is effective in the treatment of AD with high overall safety, and can serve as a new treatment option for AD patients with an unsatisfactory response to traditional treatment.

Objective:To summarize clinical characteristics of and treatment experience with patients with critical illnesses in a dermatological ward.Methods:All patients with serious or life-threatening conditions, who were hospitalized at the dermatological ward of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from July 9, 2011 to December 31, 2020, were collected, and their clinical data were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic characteristics, disease types and proportions, main complications, causes of serious or life-threatening conditions, important treatment measures and outcomes were summarized, and causes of death were also analyzed and discussed.Results:A total of 1 057 patients with critical illnesses were collected, with a male-to-female ratio of 1∶1.11, and 64.81% of them aged 18 to 65 years. The types of diseases mainly included drug eruptions (332 cases) , connective tissue diseases (226 cases) , bullous skin diseases (104 cases) , psoriasis (57 cases) , erythroderma (45 cases) , infectious skin diseases (67 cases) , etc. Among them, psoriasis (39 cases) and erythroderma (32 cases) mostly occurred in males, and connective tissue diseases (168 cases) mostly occurred in females. Common complications mainly involved infections, important organ damage or dysfunction, hypoalbuminemia, and fluid, electrolyte and acid-base imbalances. A total of 94 patients were diagnosed with life-threatening conditions, which were found to be mainly caused by primary skin diseases, hematologic abnormalities, respiratory failure, nervous system abnormalities, renal failure, sepsis, fluid, electrolyte and acid-base imbalances, etc. During the management of critical illnesses, 43 patients were treated with high-dose glucocorticoid pulse therapy, 264 were treated with gamma-globulin pulse therapy, 355 were transfused with other blood products, and 34 received special therapies such as hemoperfusion/immunoadsorption therapy, plasma exchange, dialysis, artificial liver support therapy; 42 patients were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) , 12 were transferred to the department of surgery for operations, and 12 were transferred to the department of obstetrics and gynecology for delivery or induction of labor. After treatment, 989 patients (93.57%) achieved improvement and were discharged. A total of 14 patients (1.32%) died, of whom 7 died of secondary sepsis, 2 died of severe pulmonary infections, 2 died of asphyxia caused by respiratory mucosa shedding-induced airway obstruction, the other 3 died of gastrointestinal hemorrhage, cerebral hemorrhage and neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus, respectively.Conclusions:Critical cases in the dermatological ward mainly suffered from serious skin diseases such as severe drug eruptions, connective tissue diseases and bullous skin diseases, as well as complications such as severe underlying diseases, severe organ dysfunction, sepsis or severe fluid, electrolyte and acid-base imbalances. In terms of treatment, it is of critical significance to make a clear diagnosis and assess the severity of disease as early as possible, monitor and prevent possible complications, and to consult with specialists in relevant disciplines in time.