China ; Female ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; therapy

Moxibustion therapy is a commonly used external treatment method for numerous conditions and general health care. Besides the effects of the drugs, infrared-heat and radiation spectrum are also the manner of action. By collecting the literature about thermal radiation and infrared spectrum features of moxibustion, the author reported the novel studies on the thermal effect of moxibustion including factors that impacted the temperature, infrared spectrum features, apparatus based on infrared technology employed in clinic for moxibusiton and characteristics of temperature sensitivity. The author also identified some existing problems and provided advice for future application and research.

New investigations indicated that half of the people in the world had the risk of vitamin D deficiency.The main reasons for vitamin D deficiency was that people ignored the importance of using vitamin D supplement in special ages and seasons.Children were potentially at high risk for vitamin D deficiency.Vitamin D deficiency during childhood could cause rickets,growth retardation,skeletal deformities and might increase the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture in later life.Vitamin D deficiency were also related with cancer,autoimmune disease,endocrine system disease,nervous system disease,hypertension and infection.

Congenital Abnormalities ; economics ; prevention & control ; Cost Control ; Humans ; Public Health Practice ; economics

OBJECTIVETo compare the clinical effective differences between shallow needling and medication for the sleep disorder of schizophrenia.

METHODSNinety-six patients with the sleep disorder of schizophrenia were randomly divided into a shallow needling group and a medication group, 48 cases in each one (one case dropping in the shallow needling group and two cases dropping in the medication group). The same dose paliperidone tablets were adopted in the two groups. In the shallow needling group, the main acupoints were Baihui (GV 20), Shangenxue (Extra) and Ezhongxian (MS 1), and the acupoints based on syndrome differentiation were selected. The shallow needling manipulation was used once a day, 5 times a week. In the medication group, 3 mg eszopiclone tablets were prescribed orally before sleep once every night. The patients were treated for 6 weeks in the two groups. Sleep condition was evaluated by Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) before and after treatment, and the clinical efficacy and the adverse reaction were assessed by positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) and treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS) before and after 2-week, 4-week and 6-week treatment. The clinical effects between the two groups were compared.

RESULTSAfter treatment in the two groups, both the total scores and the each factor score of the PSQI and the PANSS were apparently decreased (P<0. 05, P<0. 01). As for the PSQI scale, after treatment the daytime dysfunctional score of the shallow needling group was reduced more obviously than that of the medication group (P<0. 05), and the falling asleep time in the medication group was declined more markedly compared with that in the shallow needling group (P<0. 05). Regarding the PANSS, the improvement of the pathological factor in the shallow needling group was better than that in the medication group after treatment (P<0. 05), and the improvement of the positive factor in the medication group was superior to that in the shallow needling group after treatment (P<0. 05). The total scores and each factor score of the PSQI and the PANSS were not statistically different between the two groups after treatment (P>0. 05). At the end of the 6th week, the curative and effective rate was 63. 9% (30/47) and the total effective rate was 95. 8% (45/47) in the shallow needling group;the curative and effective rate was 58. 7% (27/46) and the total effective rate was 91. 3% (42/46) in the medication group. The difference of the effect was not statistically significant between the two groups (P>0. 05). The scores of TESS in the shallow needling group were lower than those in the medication group (P<0. 01, P<0. 05).

CONCLUSIONThe effect of shallow needling for assisting the sleeping disorder of schizophrenia is reliable and it is similar with the efficacy of eszopiclone. Also, the shallow needling can improve the daytime dysfunction and the pathological factor apparently without adverse reaction and pain. Its safety is obviously better than that of eszopiclone.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Schizophrenia ; complications ; Sleep ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; etiology ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Objective To investigate the correlation of the the positive rate and necrosis rate of retropharyngeal lymph nodes with the clinical effects of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (PNC).Methods Seventy-two patients with PNC,50 males and 22 females,with the median age of 50,underwent IMRT delivered into 33 times.The retropharyngeal lymph nodes involved and positive lymph nodes of neck were delineated on the CT image.The median dose and median fractionated dose for gross tumor volume (GTV) were 70.0 and 2.12 Gy respectively,and the median dose and median fractionated dose for clinical target volume (CTV) were 70.0 and 2.12 Gy respectively.The patients were followed up for 36 (5-54) months.Results The metastasis rate of the neck lymph nodes was 90.3％,the metastasis rates in the regions Ⅰ-Ⅴ were 2.8％,86.0％,51.4％,20.8％,and 37.5％,respectively.The metastasis rate of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes was 79.2％,and specifically the metastasis rates of the left,right,and bilateral retropharyngeal lymph nodes were 51.4％,45.9％,and 18.1％,respectively.The cross metastasis rate was 6.9％.Necrosis of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes was found in 15 cases.The necrosis rates of the left,right,and bilateral retropharyngeal lymph nodes were 21.6％,27.2％,15.4％,respectively.Retropharyngeal lymph nodes metastasis was significantly correlated with N stage and clinical stage(Fuzhou 92:r =-0.383,-0.314,P ＜ 0.05 ; UICC:r =-0.434,-0.306,P ＜ 0.05).Local recurrence was observed in 4 patients,6 patients had distant metastasis,and 7 patients died.The positiveness of retropharyngeal lymph nodes was significantly correlated with the recurrence rate,distant metastasis rate,survival rate,and disease free survival rate (r =0.085,0.138,-0.140,-0.124,P ＜ 0.05),and the necrosis of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes was significantly correlated with the recurrence rate and distant metastasis rate (r =0.256,-0.057,P ＜ 0.05),and not significantly correlated with the survival rate and disease free survival rate.Conclusions Retropharyngeal lymph nodes metastasis in NPC is correlated with the N stage and clinical stage.The positiveness of retropharyngeal lymph nodes is significantly correlated with local recurrence,distant metastasis,and survival.Necrosis of retropharyngeal lymph nodes in NPC is significantly correlated with local recurrence and distant metastasis after IMRT.

Objective To discuss incidence and related risk factors of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) after acute subcortical infarction (SI).Methods One hundred and eighty-two patients with acute SI were divided into two groups:VCI group (81 cases) and no-VCI group ( 101 cases) according to VCI diagnostic standard.Sex proportion,age,culture degree between two groups were compared,and correlation was analyzed between the quantity of risk factors and the incidence of VCI.Results The incidence of VCI after acute SI was 44.5％(81/182).According to age stratification,the incidence of VCI in the patients of 56-65 years was 35.4％ (23/65),in the patients of 66-75 years was 45.3％ (48/106),and in the patients of 76-85 years was 90.9％ (10/11 ).The age in VCI group was significantly higher than that in no-VCI group [(69.93 ±6.91) years vs. (67.62 ±5.56) years,P =0.014],and culture degree was significantly lower than that in no-VCI group (P =0.028).The sex proportion between two groups had no significant difference (P =0.876).The more accompanying risk factors,the higher incidence of VCI.Conclusions Along with the increase of age,the incidence of VCI after acute SI is higher.The more accompanying risk factors,the higher incidence of VCI.

The incidence of open-angle glaucoma has been rising year after year in China, which has caught much at-tention from ophthalmologists.There are various methods to evaluate the disease progression of an open-angle glaucoma pa-tient.These methods can be divided into two classes:functional assessment and structural assessment.We survey these two classes of methods in this paper.

Ubiquitin plays a vital role in both protein degradation and many kinds of cellular functions, such as DNA damage repair, cell cycle regulation, cell growth and immune system function.Ubiquitin modiifed enzyme zinc ifnger protein A20 is considered to be an important gateway for the regulation of immune and inlfammatory responses, which is a key negative regulator in NF-κB signaling pathway. Dendritic cell (DC) is a full-time antigen presenting cell that identifies inflammatory response or pathogenic microorganism by multiple receptors, and is a key moderator for immunity homeostasis. Researches in recent years showed that A20 plays an important role in regulating the function of DC, which may take part in the occurrence and development of inlfammatory bowel disease. In this article, the regulation of A20 in the immunoregulation of DC and its function on the pathogenesis of inlfammatory bowel disease were reviewed.

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is thickening retina with two disc diameter,which is the leading cause of blindness in diabetic retinopathy patients.The initial studies demonstrated that laser treatment of DME prevented further visual deterioration but did not improve visual acuity.Although glucocorticoid slow-release system can extend the time of effective drug concentration,to help glucocorticoid better carry out its biological effect,further studies are needed to warrant their safety due to increasing intraocular pressure and cataract progression.Novel studies identifying the presence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the eye with DME allowed for the development of an alternative anti-VEGF therapy,which revolutionized the management of DME by not only preventing vision loss,but also improving overall vision.Anti-VEGF therapy is becoming the first-line treatment of DME.However,present treatment modalities including anti-VEGF for DME had limitations,which build on the current understanding of DME pathogenesis.Further in-depth study of the development and outcome of DME is needed to optimize the therapeutic schemes,based on objective and scientific observation of treatment response.Finally we need to fully utilize the public health services and clinical management resources for diabetic patients,to prevent the visual impairment of DME before its occurrence.