Functional dyspepsia （FD） is a prioritized disease category where traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） demonstrates distinct therapeutic advantages. The current western medicine treatment for FD is mainly based on proton pump inhibitors and prokinetic agents， with digestive enzymes， probiotics and antidepressants serving as adjuvant medication， yet such therapies still have certain limitations. TCM treatment for FD includes oral administration of Chinese herbal formulas and Chinese patent medicines， as well as external TCM therapies such as acupuncture and moxibustion， acupoint application， hot medicinal compress therapy， rubbing with ointment， medicinal iontophoresis， auricular acupoint therapy and tui na （Chinese medical massage）. The combined treatment of FD with integrated TCM and western medicine can significantly improve clinical effectiveness and reduce adverse reactions. The common mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of both TCM and western medicine revolve around the core pathological processes of FD， mainly focusing on restoring gastrointestinal motility， regulating the levels of brain-gut peptides， modulating intestinal microecology， and ameliorating inflammatory status. The differential mechanisms lie in the precise targeting feature of western medicine versus the holistic-regulating and multi-target characteristics of TCM， and the two approaches exert a synergistic effect to enhance efficacy. This paper proposes to leverage the advantages of TCM in holistic regulation and the strengths of western medicine in targeted treatment， so as to provide personalized and comprehensive treatment regimens for FD patients.

BACKGROUND:Many studies have focused on acupuncture,such as silver needles,for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation,but there are few studies based on the myofascial trigger point theory. OBJECTIVE:To observe the effects of silver needle comprehensive therapy on the ultrasound morphology and clinical efficacy of multifidus muscles in patients with lumbar disc herniation based on the theory of myofascial trigger points. METHODS:A total of 159 patients with lumbar disc herniation who were seen from January 2022 to April 2023 were selected as the research subjects and randomly divided into three groups:conventional group(n=53),traditional acupuncture group(n=53),and silver needle group(n=53).The conventional group received routine western medicine treatment;the traditional acupuncture group used traditional acupuncture therapy based on meridian pathways and symptom localization;and the silver needle group used silver needle warm acupuncture at myofascial trigger points for intervention.All three groups received continuous treatment for 4 weeks.The number of myofascial trigger points,pain assessment,lumbar function evaluation,ultrasound morphology changes of multifidus muscles,clinical efficacy,and traditional Chinese medicine symptom score were recorded before and after treatment in the three groups. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)After treatment,the number of myofascial trigger points in the lumbar muscles decreased in all groups,and the silver needle group showed a significant reduction compared with the traditional acupuncture group and the conventional group(P<0.05).(2)The pain rating index score,visual analogue scale score,present pain intensity score,Oswestry disability index score,and Roland-Morris disability questionnaire score in the silver needle group were lower than those in the traditional acupuncture group and the conventional group(P<0.05).(3)The ultrasound morphology indexes of multifidus muscles in the silver needle group were superior to those in the traditional acupuncture group and the conventional western medicine group(P<0.05).(4)Traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores in the silver needle group were lower than those in the traditional acupuncture group and the conventional western medicine group(P<0.05).(5)There were significant differences in clinical efficacy among the three groups(P<0.05).To conclude,applying silver needle comprehensive therapy based on the theory of myofascial trigger points can effectively reduce pain,improve clinical efficacy,and enhance lumbar spine dysfunction and multifidus muscle morphology in patients with lumbar disc herniation.

Objective:To evaluate the effect and causality of serum metabolites on the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC), so as to provide reference for nutritional programs for patients with UC.Methods:Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to estimate the causal relationship between serum metabolites and UC. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 1 400 metabolites were performed, with the metabolites as exposure and UC as outcome. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) was used to calculate causal estimates. Four other MR methods with different modeling assumptions including MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and simple mode were used as additional analyses to improve the stability of the results. The results were validated through heterogeneity and pleiotropy tests. Finally, the possible causal metabolites were analyzed by metabolic pathway analysis.Results:MR analysis revealed that 85 metabolites had a possible causal relationship with UC. Among them, phosphatidylglycerol 1,2-dipalmitoyl-gpc (DPPC) ( P=2.75×10 -6) and isovaleryl carnitine (C5) ( P=1.84×10 -5) were significant risk factors for UC. Metabolic pathway analysis identified 5 metabolic pathways that might be affected by these metabolites (all P<0.05), among which the porphyrin ( P=0.004) and pyrimidine metabolic pathways ( P=0.008) had higher confidence in impacting UC. Conclusions:There are causal relationships between some serum metabolites (in particular 1,2-dipalmitoyl-GPC and isovalerylcarnitine) and the risk of UC. The porphyrin and pyrimidine metabolic pathways may impact the pathogenesis of UC.

Objective:To evaluate the value of ultrasound radiomics combined with machine learning for early diagnosis of seronegative Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (SN-HT) .Methods:This retrospective study included 164 patients from Liaoning Provincial People’s Hospital , Lixin County People’s Hospital, Linghai Dalinghe Hospital, Fengcheng Phoenix Hospital, who underwent thyroidectomy for solitary nodules with normal thyroid function between Nov. 2016 and Jan. 2024. Postoperative pathology confirmed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) in some cases, who were further categorized into antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups based on serum antibody status. Patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis served as the control group. A total of 298 ultrasound images were analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from hypoechoic non-nodular areas within 0.5 cm surrounding the tumor. Two senior pathologists and two senior ultrasound physicians independently assessed lymphocytic infiltration, eosinophilic changes of follicular epithelium, and the proportion of hypoechoic areas in pathology and ultrasound images, respectively. A machine learning model, CCH-NET, was developed using linear regression and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) techniques. The dataset was divided into a training set (80%) and a validation set (20%) to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCH-NET with that of senior ultrasound physicians. Results:In internal validation, CCH-NET achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 88.89% for both antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups, significantly higher than the 66.67% accuracy of senior ultrasound physicians ( P<0.01). In external validation, CCH-NET achieved 75.00% and 66.67% accuracy for the two groups, compared to 50.00% by senior ultrasound physicians. For the control group, both methods achieved 93.33% accuracy. The AUC of CCH-NET was 0.848, outperforming senior ultrasound physicians (0.681) ,demonstrating superior diagnostic performance. Conclusion:The radiomics-based CCH-NET model, using non-nodular hypoechoic areas as a specific indicator, can accurately identify early SN-HT in euthyroid patients. It significantly outperforms senior ultrasound physicians, improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing missed diagnoses.

Objective:To evaluate the value of ultrasound radiomics combined with machine learning for early diagnosis of seronegative Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (SN-HT) .Methods:This retrospective study included 164 patients from Liaoning Provincial People’s Hospital , Lixin County People’s Hospital, Linghai Dalinghe Hospital, Fengcheng Phoenix Hospital, who underwent thyroidectomy for solitary nodules with normal thyroid function between Nov. 2016 and Jan. 2024. Postoperative pathology confirmed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) in some cases, who were further categorized into antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups based on serum antibody status. Patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis served as the control group. A total of 298 ultrasound images were analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from hypoechoic non-nodular areas within 0.5 cm surrounding the tumor. Two senior pathologists and two senior ultrasound physicians independently assessed lymphocytic infiltration, eosinophilic changes of follicular epithelium, and the proportion of hypoechoic areas in pathology and ultrasound images, respectively. A machine learning model, CCH-NET, was developed using linear regression and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) techniques. The dataset was divided into a training set (80%) and a validation set (20%) to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCH-NET with that of senior ultrasound physicians. Results:In internal validation, CCH-NET achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 88.89% for both antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups, significantly higher than the 66.67% accuracy of senior ultrasound physicians ( P<0.01). In external validation, CCH-NET achieved 75.00% and 66.67% accuracy for the two groups, compared to 50.00% by senior ultrasound physicians. For the control group, both methods achieved 93.33% accuracy. The AUC of CCH-NET was 0.848, outperforming senior ultrasound physicians (0.681) ,demonstrating superior diagnostic performance. Conclusion:The radiomics-based CCH-NET model, using non-nodular hypoechoic areas as a specific indicator, can accurately identify early SN-HT in euthyroid patients. It significantly outperforms senior ultrasound physicians, improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing missed diagnoses.

Objective:To evaluate the effect and causality of serum metabolites on the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC), so as to provide reference for nutritional programs for patients with UC.Methods:Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to estimate the causal relationship between serum metabolites and UC. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 1 400 metabolites were performed, with the metabolites as exposure and UC as outcome. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) was used to calculate causal estimates. Four other MR methods with different modeling assumptions including MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and simple mode were used as additional analyses to improve the stability of the results. The results were validated through heterogeneity and pleiotropy tests. Finally, the possible causal metabolites were analyzed by metabolic pathway analysis.Results:MR analysis revealed that 85 metabolites had a possible causal relationship with UC. Among them, phosphatidylglycerol 1,2-dipalmitoyl-gpc (DPPC) ( P=2.75×10 -6) and isovaleryl carnitine (C5) ( P=1.84×10 -5) were significant risk factors for UC. Metabolic pathway analysis identified 5 metabolic pathways that might be affected by these metabolites (all P<0.05), among which the porphyrin ( P=0.004) and pyrimidine metabolic pathways ( P=0.008) had higher confidence in impacting UC. Conclusions:There are causal relationships between some serum metabolites (in particular 1,2-dipalmitoyl-GPC and isovalerylcarnitine) and the risk of UC. The porphyrin and pyrimidine metabolic pathways may impact the pathogenesis of UC.

Objective:To investigate corneal transparency alteration in patients with type 2 diabetes and its influencing factors.Methods:A case-control study was conducted.A total of 52 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) (104 eyes) and 23 age-matched healthy controls (46 eyes) were enrolled as DM group and normal control group in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from October 1, 2020 to October 30, 2021.Patients with DM were further divided into non-diabetic retinopathy (non-DR) and DR groups according to their fundus conditions.Corneal densitometry (CD) was evaluated using the Pentacam.According to its built-in program, the cornea was divided into anterior, intermediate, and posterior layers and subdivided into 0-2 mm, >2-6 mm, >6-10 mm, and >10-12 mm annular regions with the corneal apex as the center of the circle.Pentacam automatically calculated the CD value of each corneal layer and region as well as the total CD value.The influencing factors of total CD value in diabetes group were analyzed by a multivariate linear regression analysis model.This study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (No.YX2023-129[F1]).Written informed consent was obtained from each subject before any medical examination.Results:The total CD value of diabetes group was 20.24±3.10, which was significantly higher than 18.79±3.31 of normal control group ( t=-2.583, P=0.011).The CD values of the anterior layer, intermediate layer, 0-2 mm, and >2-6 mm regions were significantly higher in diabetes group than in normal control group (all at P<0.05).The CD values in the anterior layer were higher in non-DR and DR groups than in normal control group, and the CD values and total CD values in the middle and posterior layers were higher in non-DR group than in normal control group and DR group, and the differences were statistically significant (all at P<0.05).The CD values in the 0-2 mm and >2-6 mm regions were significantly higher in non-DR group than in normal control group, and the CD value in the >6-10 mm annular region was significantly higher in non-DR group than in DR group and normal control group (all at P<0.05).Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that age and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level were the main influencing factors for the increase in CD values in diabetic patients ( β=0.266, P<0.001; β=0.423, P=0.003). Conclusions:The decrease of corneal transparency precedes the appearance of DR in patients with diabetes.Poor control of HbA1c level in diabetic patients may cause the decline of corneal transparency.

Acetyl dipeptide-1 cetyl ester (AD-1) is a synthetic peptide composed of acetic acid and cetyl alcohol with arginine and tyrosine, which has certain anti-inflammatory and skin barrier enhancement effects, has been used in cosmetics for sensitive skin.Meanwhile, the ingredient has also been used in anti-aging cosmetics, but there is a lack of published scientific evidence on anti- senescence aspect.In this study, we investigated the related effects of AD-1 by evaluating its in vitro antioxidant and antiglycation efficacies.Furthermore, we established a photoaging model on primary rat dermal fibroblasts by repeated exposures to UVA irradiation.MTT assay was used to detect the effects of AD-1 on the cell viability.RT-qPCR was used to determine the effects of AD-1 on the mRNA levels of senescence-related p21, p53, MMPs, IL6, Col1, Col3 and autophagy-related p62, ATG5, ATG7.Western blot was used to detect the effects of AD-1 on the protein levels of p16, p21, p53, Col1, LC3B and p62.SA-β-gal was performed to indicate senescence level of the cell.MDC was performed to indicate autophagy level.Intracellular reactive oxygen species were monitored by fluorescent probes DCFH-DA.The results showed that AD-1 could reduce UVA-induced the cell damage and regulate the abnormal expression of mRNA levels. It alleviated the abnormal protein levels of p16, p21, p53, Col1, LC3B and p62 induced by UVA. These results suggested that AD-1 has not only antioxidant and antiglycation effects but also can activate autophagy to achieve anti-senescence effect.

Objective To explore the spatial-temporal characteristics of influenza epidemic in Hubei from 2009 to 2020, and make short-term prediction to provide reference for influenza prevention and control strategies. Methods Time series seasonal decomposition model and geographic spatial analysis method were used to analyze spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of influenza prevalence in Hubei during 2009-2020. LSTM neural network model was used to predict the monthly influenza incidence from 2020 to 2023. Results Influenza was mainly prevalent in the end of winter and the beginning of spring (December to March) were periods of high influenza incidence. In recent years, the influenza pandemic has shown an increasing trend. Influenza epidemic was characterized by significant spatial differentiation, with ^“A-shaped point-axis structure^” surrounding counties were more severe . The epidemic center of gravity experienced a spatial evolution process from west to east and from north to south. LSTM neural network model predicted that although the influenza incidence rate from January 2020 to December 2023 is lower than that in 2019, it is still at a high level, and shows a peak epidemic in winter and spring. Conclusion Influenza epidemic in Hubei is characterized by a high epidemic period in late winter and early spring, and the southeast of Hubei is the key epidemic area. It is suggested that publicity and prevention and control should be strengthened according to people, time and place, and key populations and areas should be encouraged to receive influenza vaccines in advance.

Objective:To compare the efficacy and safety between WangShiBaoChiWan and mosapride in the treatment of functional dyspepsia (FD).Methods:From September 2019 to September 2020, patients with postprandial fullness and early satiation who met the Rome Ⅳ criteria for FD diagnosis were enrolled from 15 hospitals, including the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Shanghai Changhai Hospital), Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical College. The subjects were randomly divided into WangShiBaoChiWan (experimental) group and mosapride (control) group in the ratio of 1∶1. The treatment regimens were WangShiBaoChiWan+ mosapride simulator, WangShiBaoChiWan simulator+ mosapride, respectively with a treatment period of 2 weeks. The primary efficacy outcome was the improvement rates of main symptoms before and after treatment, the secondary efficacy primary efficacy outcome was the total clinical effective rate and the change of the single symptom score. And the safety indicator included adverse events. Independent sample t-test, paired t-test and chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. Results:A total of 251 FD patients were enrolled in the full analysis set, including 124 in the experimental group and 127 in the control group; 241 FD patients were in the per-protocol analysis set, including 117 in the experimental group and 124 in the control group. The analysis of per-protocol analysis set showed that the improvement rates of the main symptoms of the experimental group and the control group were (66±29)% and (60±30)%, respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The improvement rate of the main symptoms of the experimental group reached 117% of that of the control group, which exceeded the expected non-inferiority standard of 80%. The total clinical effective rates of the experimental group and the control group were 76.07% (89/117) and 75.81% (94/124), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The results of full analysis set showed that the incidence of adverse events of the experimental group and the control group was 1.62% (2/124) and 1.57% (2/127), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). There were no serious adverse events in the two groups. Conclusion:The improvement rate of the main symptoms of WangShiBaoChiWan is not inferior to that of mosapride in the treatment of FD, and it has good safety.