OBJECTIVES: To compare the efficacy of needle retaining after electroacupuncture combined with cognitive training and electroacupuncture combined with cognitive training in the treatment of post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). METHODS: A total of 206 patients with PSCI were randomized into a needle retaining group (103 cases, 9 cases dropped out) and an electroacupuncture group (103 cases, 6 cases dropped out). In addition to the conventional basic medical treatment and the rehabilitation treatment, in the needle retaining group, electroacupuncture at Shenting (GV 24) and Baihui (GV 20) was applied, with continuous wave of 50 Hz in the first 15 min and with disperse-dense wave of 2 Hz/50 Hz in the last 15 min, the needles were continuously retained for 1 h after electroacupuncture, during which cognitive training was adopted; in the electroacupuncture group, cognitive training was performed after the same electric stimulation exerted for 30 min, without additional needles retaining. The treatment was given once a day, 5 times a week for totally 8 weeks in the two groups. Before and after 8-week treatment, the TCM syndrome score was observed; before and after 4,8-week treatment, the scores of mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) and ability of daily living were observed in the two groups. The clinical efficacy of the two groups was evaluated after 8-week treatment. RESULTS: After 8-week treatment, the TCM syndrome scores were increased compared with those before treatment in both groups (P<0.05); the TCM syndrome score in the needle retaining group was higher than that in the electroacupuncture group (P<0.05).After 4,8-week treatment, the scores of MMSE, MoCA and ability of daily living were increased compared with those before treatment in both groups (P<0.05); MMSE, MoCA scores after 4,8-week treatment and ability of daily living score after 8-week treatment in the needle retaining group were higher than those in the electroacupuncture group (P<0.05). The total effective rate was 90.4% (85/94) in the needle retaining group, which was superior to 82.5% (80/97) in the electroacupuncture group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both needle retaining after electroacupuncture combined with cognitive training and electroacupuncture combined with cognitive training can effectively treat PSCI, improve the clinical symptom, cognitive function and ability of daily living in PSCI patients. Needle retaining after electroacupuncture combined with cognitive training has a better therapeutic effect.
Humans ; Electroacupuncture ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Cognitive Training ; Acupuncture Points ; Cognitive Dysfunction/therapy* ; Stroke/complications* ; Treatment Outcome

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of liver transplantation (LT) and liver resection (LR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) and to investigate risk factors affecting prognosis. Materials and Methods: A total of 94 HCC patients with PVTT type I (segmental PVTT) and PVTT type II (lobar PVTT) were involved and divided into LR (n=47) and LT groups (n=47). Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared before and after inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). Prognostic factors for RFS and OS were explored. Results: Two treatment groups were well-balanced using IPTW. In the entire cohort, LT provided a better prognosis than LR. Among patients with PVTT type I, RFS was better with LT (p=0.039); OS was not different significantly between LT and LR (p=0.093). In subgroup analysis of PVTT type I patients with α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels >200 ng/mL, LT elicited significantly longer median RFS (18.0 months vs. 2.1 months, p=0.022) and relatively longer median OS time (23.6 months vs. 9.8 months, p=0.065). Among patients with PVTT type II, no significant differences in RFS and OS were found between LT and LR (p=0.115 and 0.335, respectively). Multivariate analyses showed treatment allocation (LR), tumor size (>5 cm), AFP and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels to be risk factors of RFS and treatment allocation (LR), AFP and AST as risk factors for OS. Conclusion LT appeared to afford a better prognosis for HCC with PVTT type I than LR, especially in patients with AFP levels >200 ng/mL.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the overall survival (OS) of elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients treated with oral arsenic-containing Qinghuang Powder (, QHP) or low-intensity chemotherapy (LIC). METHODS: Forty-two elderly AML patients treated with intravenous or subcutaneous LIC (1 month for each course, at least 3 courses) or oral QHP (3 months for each course, at least 2 courses) were retrospectively analyzed from January 2015 to December 2017. The main endpoints of analysis were OS and 1-, 2-, 3-year OS rates of patients, respectively. And the adverse reactions induding bone marrow suppression, digestive tract discomfort and myocardia injury were observed. RESULTS: Out of 42 elderly AML patients, 22 received LIC treatment and 20 received QHP treatment, according to patients' preference. There was no significant difference on OS between LIC and QHP patients (13.0 months vs. 13.5 months, >0.05). There was no significant difference on OS rates between LIC and QHP groups at 1 year (59.1% vs. 70.0%), 2 years (13.6% vs. 15%), and 3 years (4.6% vs. 5.0%, all >0.05). Furthermore, there was no significant difference of OS on prognosis stratification of performance status > 2 (12 months vs. 12 months), age> 75 year-old (12.0 months vs. 12.5 months), hematopoietic stem cell transplant comorbidity index >2 (12 months vs. 13 months), poor cytogenetics (12 months vs. 8 months), and diagnosis of secondary AML (10 months vs. 14 months) between LIC and QHP patients (>0.05). CONCLUSION QHP may be an alternative treatment for elderly AML patients refusing LIC therapy.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Arsenicals ; therapeutic use ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Powders ; Retrospective Studies

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is currently the most common complication of diabetes. It is considered to be one of the leading causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and affects many diabetic patients. The pathogenesis of DN is extremely complex and has not yet been clarified; however, in recent years, increasing evidence has shown the important role of innate immunity in DN pathogenesis. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) are important components of the innate immune system and have a significant impact on the occurrence and development of DN. In this review, we classify PRRs into secretory, endocytic, and signal transduction PRRs according to the relationship between the PRRs and subcellular compartments. PRRs can recognize related pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), thus triggering a series of inflammatory responses, promoting renal fibrosis, and finally causing renal impairment. In this review, we describe the proposed role of each type of PRRs in the development and progression of DN.
Alarmins/physiology* ; C-Reactive Protein/physiology* ; Diabetic Nephropathies/etiology* ; Endocytosis ; Humans ; Immunity, Innate ; Mannose-Binding Lectin/physiology* ; Pathogen-Associated Molecular Pattern Molecules ; Receptors, Pattern Recognition/physiology* ; Serum Amyloid P-Component/physiology* ; Signal Transduction

Infection is an important cause of higher mortality in patients with hematological diseases than healthy people, and fever is often the only indication of the disease.Clostridium perfringens(C.perfringens)is a grampositive anaerobic bacillus of the Clostridiumgenus, it belongs to the normal flora of the intestinal tract and is not pathogenic in normal condition.However, when intestinal flora is imbalanced due to low hypoimmunity of human body or influenced by such factors as diet, medicine, environment and other factors, it can enter the blood and cause bacteremia.At present, it has never been reported that bacteremia was caused by C.perfringens in patients with malignant hematological diseases accompanied by neutropenia, this article reported the diagnosis and treatment of C. perfringens bloodstream in one patient with malignant hematopathy, so as to provide basis for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Objectives: This study aimed to observe the change of arachidonic acid-induced platelet aggregation rate (AA-Ag) and short-term adverse reactions after taking 50 or 100 mg/d aspirin(enteric-coated sustained-release formulation) or 100 mg/d aspirin (enteric-coated aspirin tablet)in the elderly Chinese population (aged 60 years or older). Methods: A total of 1 194 participants aged 60 or older, who should be recommended to take aspirin therapy due to medical reasons, were recruited and randomly assigned into three groups to receive enteric-coated sustained-release aspirin tablet (50 mg, once daily, group A), or 100 mg, once daily (group B) or enteric-coated aspirin tablet 100 mg once daily (group C), respectively. AA-Ag was measured after (14±3)days of aspirin treatment. Adverse events and bleeding events were recorded during the (28±3)days of follow-up. Results: The AA-Ag in group A (n=347), B (n=338) and C (n=332) post 14-day aspirin therapy were 6.65 (4.03,10.84)%, 5.89(3.22,10.03) % and 6.00(3.68,10.09) %, respectively (P>0.05). During the 28 days follow-up, the adverse events rate of group A (n=388), B (n=387) and C (n=385) was 3.87%,3.36%, and 7.95%, and the mild bleeding events rate was 3.09%, 2.33%, and 6.23%, respectively. Adverse events rate and mild bleeding events rate were significantly higher in group C than in group A and B (P<0.05). Conclusions: Compared with 100 mg-dose aspirin, 50 mg-dose aspirin achieves similar anti-platelet aggregation effect in this elderly Chinese population. The short-term adverse events and mild bleeding risk of aspirin with enteric-coated sustained-release formulation were fewer than that of enteric-coated formulation.

OBJECTIVE: To establish a compact and efficient hypergraph representation and a graph-similarity-based retrieval method of molecules to achieve effective and efficient medicine information retrieval. METHODS: Chemical structural formula (CSF) was a primary search target as a unique and precise identifier for each compound at the molecular level in the research field of medicine information retrieval. To retrieve medicine information effectively and efficiently, a complete workflow of the graph-based CSF retrieval system was introduced. This system accepted the photos taken from smartphones and the sketches drawn on tablet personal computers as CSF inputs, and formalized the CSFs with the corresponding graphs. Then this paper proposed a compact and efficient hypergraph representation for molecules on the basis of analyzing factors that directly affected the efficiency of graph matching. According to the characteristics of CSFs, a hierarchical collapsing method combining graph isomorphism and frequent subgraph mining was adopted. There was yet a fundamental challenge, subgraph overlapping during the collapsing procedure, which hindered the method from establishing the correct compact hypergraph of an original CSF graph. Therefore, a graph-isomorphism-based algorithm was proposed to select dominant acyclic subgraphs on the basis of overlapping analysis. Finally, the spatial similarity among graphical CSFs was evaluated by multi-dimensional measures of similarity. RESULTS: To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, the proposed system was firstly compared with Wikipedia Chemical Structure Explorer (WCSE), the state-of-the-art system that allowed CSF similarity searching within Wikipedia molecules dataset, on retrieval accuracy. The system achieved higher values on mean average precision, discounted cumulative gain, rank-biased precision, and expected reciprocal rank than WCSE from the top-2 to the top-10 retrieved results. Specifically, the system achieved 10%, 1.41, 6.42%, and 1.32% higher than WCSE on these metrics for top-10 retrieval results, respectively. Moreover, several retrieval cases were presented to intuitively compare with WCSE. The results of the above comparative study demonstrated that the proposed method outperformed the existing method with regard to accuracy and effectiveness. CONCLUSION This paper proposes a graph-similarity-based retrieval approach for medicine information. To obtain satisfactory retrieval results, an isomorphism-based algorithm is proposed for dominant subgraph selection based on the subgraph overlapping analysis, as well as an effective and efficient hypergraph representation of molecules. Experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Algorithms ; Databases, Chemical ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Molecular Structure

Objective To study the efficacy of pemetrexed or fluorouracil in combination with irinotecan in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. Methods 68 patients with advanced colorectal cancer were selected from January 2014 to January 2016 in Qinghai Provincial People's hospital. Patients were divided into the control group and the observation group by random grouping, and 34 patients for each group. Patients in the control group were received second-line therapy with fluorouracil and irinotecan. The patients in the observation group were received second-line therapy with the combination of pemetrexed and irinotecan. After treatment, the treatment effects, adverse reactions and living conditions of two groups were compared. Results The total effective rate of the observation group was 38.24%, was higher than that of the control group 8.82% (P<0.05); the observation group's disease control rate was 76.47%, was higher than that of the control group 52.94% (P<0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions in the observation group was 200.00%, which was lower than 305.88% in the control group (P<0.05). Progression free survival time in the observation groupwas (6.81±2.31) months, was higher than the control group (3.75±1.06) months (P<0.05); the total survival time in the observation group was (14.69±4.28) month, was higher than the control group (8.76±2.27) month (P<0.05). Conclusion In the second-line treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, the application of raltitrexed combined with irinotecan treatment, could improve the total efficiency of treatment and disease control rate, reduce adverse reactions, and prolong the survival time of patients.

Objective To investigate the biofilm formation rate of Candida albicans strain and its sensitivity to antifungal agents.Methods Candida albicans strains were isolated from 165 patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) or recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) in our hospital.The sensitivity of C.albicans strains to antifungal agents was evaluated by drug sensitivity test.And C54 strains for subsequent experiments in vivo and vitro were selected.Biofilms of single microbe or polymicrobial combination were induced in vitro,and their minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were determined in free and biofilm patterns,respectively.C.albicans and mixed microbe suspensions were injected into mice to establish a model of VVC.Using ELIASA,OD595 values were determined to observe biofilm growth rates across groups.Results The largest number of itraconazole-resistant on C.albicans strains (4.20％).MIC values of all groups were higher in a free pattern than in a biofilm pattern.The polymicrobial biofilms formed by co-culture of fugal and bacterial strains were markedly resistant to various antifungal agents.Mter induction in the biofilm pattern,for C54 + Escherichia coli group,MIC values of resistance to amphotericin B,itraconazole,5-flucytosine and fluconazole were 512,＞256,＞512,and ＞ 1024 μg · mL-1;for C54 + Streptococcus agalactiae group,MIC values of resistance to above antifungal agents were ＞512,＞256,＞512,and ＞ 1024 μg · mL-1.The biofilm formation rate was significantly higher in vaginal samples isolated from the mice who were injected with mixed microbe suspension than those who were injected with standard C.albicans suspension (P ＜ 0.05).For ATCC14053 group,OD595 values were 0.20 ± 0.11,0.24 ± 0.024,0.25 ± 0.06 at 24,48 and 72 h,respectively;for C54 + E.coli group,OD595 values were 0.69 ±0.88,0.79 ±0.65,1.10 ±0.64 respectively;for C54 +S.agalactiae group,OD595 values were 0.68 ±0.42,0.81 ± 0.77,1.10 ± 0.10,respectively.Conclusion Polymicrobial biofilm formation can improve the biofilm formation rate of C.albicans and its resistance to antifungal agents and will enhance vaginal injury in patients with RVVC.

OBJECTIVETo analyze the correlation between pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) and prokineticin receptor 2 (PROKR2) and prokineticin 2 (RROK2) mutations.

METHODSPROKR2 and RROK2 genotypes were identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction analysis with exon-flanking primers and by automated sequencing techniques with peripheral blood DNA samples from 59 patients with PSIS.

RESULTSOf these 59 PSIS patients, 6 showed intragenic deletions at the PROKR2 locus. Of them, 5 patients exhibited intragenic subsititution of exon 2 (c.991G>A), and the remaining one patient exhibited intragenic subsititution of exon 2 (c.1057C>T). No PROK2 mutation was found in these PSIS patients.

CONCLUSIONPROKR2 may be the susceptibility gene of PSIS.