Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a kind of degenerative osteoarthrosis, which usually involves articular cartilage, subchondral bone, meniscus and quadriceps femoris, which is equivalent to the change of "tendon" in traditional Chinese medicine. The occurrence and development of the change of "tendon" can be explained by the theory of "bone-restoration and tendon-softening" in traditional Chinese medicine. If the force line of the lower limb of the knee joint is normal, it can be indicated by "bone-restoration" in traditional Chinese medicine, that is, the blood around the knee joint runs smoothly, and the "tenons" such as meniscus, ligaments, cartilage, etc. are softened by the blood. This condition of the knee joint can be manifested by the balance of the surrounding soft tissue state. If the force line of the lower limb of the knee joint changes, showing a medial offset and misalignment of the knee joint, it can be indicated by "bone is out of alignment" in traditional Chinese medicine, that is, the structure of the soft tissue around the knee joint and its mechanical characteristics have changed. This condition of the knee joint can be manifested by "the tendons lose their flexibility". In this paper, the theories of modern biomechanics and "bone-restoration and tendon-softening" in traditional Chinese medicine were comprehensively analyzed, the characteristics of the "tenons" when knee osteoarthritis occurs were analyzed, and the characteristics of the occurrence and development of knee osteoarthritis from the perspective of Chinese and Western medicine were discussed.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy of pulsed radio-frequency(PRF) for knee osteoarthritis(KOA) using Meta-analysis.Methods:The literature of controlled clinical studies on PRF in the treatment of KOA was retrieved, the retrieval databases included China Biomedical Literature Database, The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, CBM, EBSCO and Network database. The retrieval period was the time of inception to February 2021. The retrieved literature was screened, quality evaluated and data extracted by two researchers. Statistical analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 software.Results:A total of 8 studies were included, including 411 patients with KOA. The 200 patients in the trial group were underwent PRF treatment and the 211 patients in the control group were underwent conventional treatment. Meta-analysis results showed that the experimental group was superior to the control group in terms of knee VAS score, WOMAC score, Lysholm score and effective rate, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Conclusions:PRF is more effective in treating KOA than conventional treatment. The quality of the literature research in this study that met the inclusion criteria was low, and a large number of high-quality studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PRF treatment.

BACKGROUND: The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2017 proposed a new classification that reclassified many chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients from group D to B. However, there is a paucity of data related to the comparison between reclassified and non-reclassified COPD patients in terms of long-term prognosis. This study aimed to investigate long-term outcomes of them and determine whether the GOLD 2017 revision improved the assessment of COPD patients. METHODS: This observational, multicenter, prospective study recruited outpatients at 12 tertiary hospitals in China from November 2016 to February 2018 and followed them up until February 2022. All enrolled patients were classified into groups A to D based on GOLD 2017, and the subjects in group B included patients reclassified from group D to B (group DB) and those remaining in group B (group BB). Incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated for the exacerbation of COPD and hospitalization in each group. RESULTS: We included and followed up 845 patients. During the first year of follow-up, the GOLD 2017 classification had a better discrimination ability for different risks of COPD exacerbation and hospitalization than GOLD 2013. Group DB was associated with a higher risk of moderate-to-severe exacerbation (HR = 1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.37-2.59, P  <0.001) and hospitalization for COPD exacerbation (HR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.29-3.85, P  = 0.004) than group BB. However, during the last year of follow-up, the differences in the risks of frequent exacerbations and hospitalizations between group DB and BB were not statistically significant (frequent exacerbations: HR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.51-2.03, P  = 0.955; frequent hospitalizations: HR = 1.66, 95% CI = 0.58-4.78, P  = 0.348). The mortality rates of the two groups were both approximately 9.0% during the entire follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS The long-term prognosis of patients reclassified into group B and of those remaining in group B was similar, although patients reclassified from group D to group B had worse short-term outcomes. The GOLD 2017 revision could improve the assessment of Chinese COPD patients in terms of long-term prognosis.
Humans ; Prospective Studies ; East Asian People ; Disease Progression ; Severity of Illness Index ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/epidemiology*