Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Treatment Outcome

Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Publishing ; standards ; Quality Control ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; standards

Starting from the thinking characteristics of TCM in the holistic approach of syndrome and process of syndrome differentiation, the problems in the criteria of syndrome diagnosis was analyzed, combining with the outcome of investigation on macrocosmic diagnosis of syndrome carried on twice by expert group nationwide in China, a concept for designing basic framework of standard for macrocosmic diagnosis of syndrome was advocated in this study. In order to recognize and master fully the standard, the following items would be the contents of the framework: give a standardized term of each syndrome; the basic clinical features of a syndrome; the qualitative parameters which could be used to distinguish the nature of a syndrome, and indexes to be used to judge the affected location of a syndrome during identifying process for a syndrome; the order of pertinent indexes with their given score, and the threshold for quantitative diagnosis. It is considered that the above framework defined the sufficient criteria which is constructed on the bases of the approaches with integrated qualitative and quantitative methods. It may enable the syndrome differentiation to access the real world of a patient to be used appropriately this framework.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; standards ; Syndrome ; Yang Deficiency ; diagnosis ; Yin Deficiency ; diagnosis

OBJECTIVETo investigate Chinese medicine (CM) patterns and epidemiological characters of patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) syndromes in clinics in China.

METHODSA prospective multi-center observational epidemiology survey on the clinical CM patterns of ILI and its prevalence was conducted from September 2009 to April 2010. A unified survey questionnaire was developed for data collection of ILI symptoms and CM patterns. Totally 45 hospitals from 22 provinces, municipality cities and autonomous regions of China participated this study. The collected data were input by EPI-data v3.1 and analyzed by SPSS 18.0, which included descriptive analysis and Chi-square test for group comparison.

RESULTSA total of 5,967 ILI patients were included in the study. The proportion of the 18-34 aged group (56.2%) was the largest; students (41.0%) were more than other occupations. Majority of the patients had the wind-heat invading Lung (Fei) syndrome (76%), while in Southwest China mainly wind-heat invading Lung syndrome and wind-cold tightening the exterior syndrome occurred. The typical symptoms of ILI were ranked as fatigue (80.9%), cough (72.2%), sore throat (67.2%), muscular soreness (67.1%), headache (65.4%), aversion to cold (60.1%), thirst (55.1%) and nasal obstruction (48.1%).

CONCLUSIONSThe ILI patients in clinics were mainly teenagers and young adults. In regard to CM syndrome, wind-heat invading Lung syndrome prevailed in all regions except the Southwest China. The characteristics of CM syndrome of ILI patients may be relevant to age and region distribution.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Distribution ; Body Temperature ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Seasons ; Sex Characteristics ; Syndrome ; Time Factors ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of polydatin on the expression level of miR-214 and liver function in atherosclerotic mice.

METHODSForty male ApoE(-/-) mice were randomly allocated into 4 groups (n=10), namely the model group, low- and high-dose polydatin groups, and simvastin group, with 10 male C57BL/6J mice serving as the normal control group. Mouse models of atherosclerosis were established by feeding the ApoE(-/-) mice with a high-fat diet. After 12 weeks of treatment, blood levels of glucose, lipids, AST, and ALT and the contents of T-SOD and MDA in the liver tissue were detected. The pathologies of the liver were examined with HE staining, and miR-214 expression in the liver was detected using quantitative real-time PCR.

RESULTSCompared with the normal control mice, the mice in the model group showed significantly increased blood glucose, serum TC, TG, LDL-C, ALT, and AST levels, and MDA contents in the liver (P<0.01), with significantly decreased serum HDL-C level and SOD and miR-214 levels in liver (P<0.01). Polydatin treatment significantly ameliorated such changes in blood glucose, serum ALT, AST, TC, TG, LDL-C, and HDL-C levels, and MDA, SOD, and miR-214 contents in liver tissue (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONs Polydatin can reduce blood glucose and lipid levels and protect the liver function in atherosclerotic mice possibly by up-regulating the expression of miR-214 and T-SOD and down-regulating MDA in the liver.

Animals ; Apolipoproteins E ; genetics ; Atherosclerosis ; drug therapy ; Blood Glucose ; analysis ; Diet, High-Fat ; Disease Models, Animal ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Glucosides ; pharmacology ; Lipids ; blood ; Liver ; drug effects ; Male ; Malondialdehyde ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice, Knockout ; MicroRNAs ; metabolism ; Stilbenes ; pharmacology ; Superoxide Dismutase ; metabolism

Treatment of refractory idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a challenging problem. We reported a refractory IIH patient who manifested with typical intracranial hypertensive symptoms successfully treated with endovascular stent implantation. Pre-operative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) opening pressure is 36 cmH2O. Cerebral angiography demonstrated a stenotic lesion located at the right transverse sinus (TS). The stenotic TS returned to its normal caliber and the pressure gradient deceased from 36 mmHg to 4 mmHg after the stent placement. The intracranial hypertensive symptoms resolved and one month later, the CSF opening pressure decreased to 14 cmH2O.
Cerebral Angiography ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Pseudotumor Cerebri ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Transverse Sinuses ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery

OBJECTIVETo introduce Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) into China, and to evaluate the quality of its Chinese Version.

METHODSMENQOL was translated into Chinese language and the reverse translation was done by several specialists. After retest study on 30 cases, validity, reliability and responsiveness were implemented in 409 cases with menopause syndrome in the multicenter study.

RESULTS7 components were extracted in factor analysis, and the total cumulative contribution was 59.476%. By correlation analysis, 7 components were divided into four domains: vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual items, same as in the English Version. The test-retest reliability of four domains were 0.806, 0.804, 0.941, 0.940 respectively. Cronbach alpha of four domains were 0.7258, 0.8234, 0.8475, 0.8641 respectively. There had been significant changes after treatment noticed.

CONCLUSIONThe measurement properties of MENQOL-Chinese Version including effectueness, reliability were met with satisfaction and seemed to be adaptable to Chinese menopause women.

China ; Climacteric ; physiology ; psychology ; Female ; Health Status Indicators ; Humans ; Menopause ; physiology ; psychology ; Middle Aged ; Personal Satisfaction ; Psychometrics ; Quality of Life ; Women's Health

Objective To evaluate the feasibility,reliability,validity and responsiveness of a Chinese Menopause Rating Scale (CMRS).Methods Cross-sectional survey and convenience sampling were adopted. Participants:women with menopause syndrome and those in menopause but without menopause syndrome were recruited.All participants were asked to complete the CMRS,Kupperman Index,WHOQOL-BREF and MENQOL.The Self-control observation design was adopted when the responsiveness was evaluated.Patients were treated with TCM for weeks.MRSTCM was evaluated before and after the treatment.Results (1) Feasibility:3343 participants including 2320 patients and 1023 menopause women,were surveyed in 8 different settings.The recovery rate of CMRS was 100%,with a response rate as 99.7%.The completion of the CMRS took 10.30 minutes on average.(2)Reliability:Cronbach's alpha of CMRS,soma dimension,psychology dimension and community dimension of CMRS were 0.93,0.87,0.89 and 0.73 respectively,with the correlation coefficient of split half of the CMRS.Soma dimension,psychology dimension and community dimension were 0.92,0.89,0.86 and 0.73 respectively and the test-retest correlation coefficient of MRSTCM,the soma dimension,psychology dimension and community dimension were as 0.88,0.91,0.85 and 0.77 respectively.(3) Validity:CMRS was established on the basis of connotation of menopause syndrome,and a series of steps were adopted to modify the scale.CMRS was applicable for patients with menopause syndrome.CMRS seemed to have had good content-related validity.The result of exploratory factor analysis was accorded with the theory frame of CMRS by and large.The correlations between CMRS and KI,CMRS and WHOQOLBREF,CMRS and MENQOL seemed good.The CMRS was able to discriminate between groups of people with or without menopausal syndrome and bad good discriminative validity.(4) Responsibility:The CMRS was measured based on 174 patients with menopausal syndrome before and after the TCM therapy.Our result showed that the CMRS having the ability to measure the clinically important differences.Conclusion CMRS was suitable for outcome assessment of menopausal syndrome.This primary research proved that the CMRS had good feasibility,reliability,validity as well as responsiveness.

Objective To select the items from the Chinese menopause rating scale(CMRS)through pre-tcsting those people with menopausal syndromes.Methods 293 people were surveyed in Guangzhou in 2005.among which 196 people with menopausal syndromes and others without.Psychometrics methods were employed to develop the scale.The item pools were all round.Methods used would include:focus group discussion and interviews,subjective evaluation method and Delphi method,to preliminarily screen the items.Data on scales measured from 196 cases with and 97 subjects without menopausal syndromes during the menopausal period,were collected.Again,seven statistical methods were employed to select the items.Results The 40-items scale for menopausal syndrome was formed to include:a)three domains:somatic(18-items),psychological(14-items)and social(5-items);b)one general appraisaIitem:c)two lie-test iterns.Conclusion The Chinese menopausal syndrome scale we used seemed to possess good content validity.feasibility and intra-class reliability.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical adverse drug reactions (ADR) of Shuxuetong Injection (SXTI) comprehensively for its proper use and post-marketing reevaluation.

METHODElectronic searching of the online Chinese and English medical databases were carried out from their inception to Feb. 2012, studies were screened and data were extracted according to inclusion and exclusion criteria; total number of ADR were calculated by study type respectively, ADR incidence rate was calculated by number of ADRs in experimental arm of clinical trials with control groups divided by total number of experimental groups.

RESULTEighty and eight papers published concerning ADRs report of SXTI were included, including 65 clinical trials, 20 case reports, and 3 ADRs surveillance or analysis report. 174 ADRs were reported, mainly in circulation system, nervous system, the digestive system, skin and appendages. Adverse reaction type is mainly rash (44.3%) and the digestive system response (23.0%). The incidence rate calculated by data extracted from 65 clinical trials was 4.3%.

CONCLUSIONAllergic reaction is the most common ADR type of SXTI. Incidence rate of different studies varies, so a rigorously designed prospectively ADR surveillance study is needed to reevaluate its incidence rate, and analyze reasons of the heterogeneity. Information concerning ADR in literatures is always absent, the quality of reporting is relative poor, thus it is suggested that active, standardized, and systematic ADR reporting should be focused on in clinical trials.

Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems ; Clinical Trials as Topic ; Drug Therapy ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Humans