PURPOSE: Conditional survival (CS) provides important information on survival for a period of time after diagnosis. Currently, information on CS patterns of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is lacking. We aimed to analyze survival rate over time and estimate CS for NPC patients using a national population-based registry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients diagnosed with NPC between 1973 and 2007 with at least 5-year follow-up were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology End Results registry. Traditional survival rates and crude CS estimateswere calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Risk-adjusted survival curves were plotted from the proportional hazards model using the correct group prognosis method. RESULTS: For 7,713 patients analyzed, adjusted baseline 5-year overall survival improved significantly from 36.0% in patients diagnosed in 1973-1979, 41.7% in 1980-1989, 46.6% in 1990-1999, to 54.7% in 2000-2007 (p < 0.01). CS analysis demonstrated that for every additional year survived, adjusted probability of surviving the next 5 years increased from 66.7% (localized), 54.0% (regional), and 35.3% (distant) at the time of diagnosis, to 83.7% (localized), 75.0% (regional), and 62.2% (distant) for patients who had survived 5 years. Adjusted 5-year CS differed among age, sex, tumor histology, ethnicity, and stage subgroups initially, but converged with time. CONCLUSION: Treatment outcomes of NPC patients have greatly improved over the decades. Increases in CS become more prominent in patients with distant disease than in those with localized or regional disease as patients survive longer. CS provides more dynamic prognostic information for patients who have survived a period of time after diagnosis.
Diagnosis ; Epidemiology* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Methods ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; SEER Program ; Survival Rate

Clinical application evaluation research of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine intends to evaluate the quality level and clinical application of the guideline. A questionnaire and prospective case survey methods were used to evaluate the applicability evaluation based on the clinician questionnaire and the application evaluation based on clinical case observation. The applicability evaluation, familiarity and utilization rate of doctors' guidelines were 85.06%, 62.76%; Sort by technical grade, intermediate grade doctors have a higher familiarity rate and utilization rate, while the junior grade doctor's is lower; Guide quality level of applicability evaluation, other items' rational percentage are better than 96% except the items of health preserving and prevention and other treatment is relatively low; Items' applicable percentage of applicability evaluation are more than 91% except the item of guide simplicity. Comprehensive applicability evaluation, The percentage of the guideline applicable to clinical practice accounted for 94.94%. The consistency rate of syndrome differentiation and clinical application is more than 96% in addition to prescription medication, other treatments and health preserving and prevention of the guidelines apply consistency of application evaluation. The percentage of good treatment effect accounted for 92.96% of application effect evaluation. The safety percentage is 99.89% and economy is 97.45%. The research shows that of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine quality level is good and is basically applicable to pediatric clinical practice which can be used as a standardized recommendation of pediatric common diseases' treatment specification. A small part of the guidelines are not applicable and need to be further consummated. Health preserving and prevention and other treatment of the guideline need to be revised.

Objective Toinvestigate the metabolic characteristics of triglyceride (TG) in the plasma of rabbitswith steroid?induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head and the therapeutic effect of Gushiling Capsule. Methods Rabbit model of femoral head necrosis induced by hormone was established. The level of plasma TG was detected by HPLC/MS and the relationship between the changes of plasma TG level and local histomorphology of femoral head was analyzed. Results Compared with the normal control group, significant changes of plasma TG levels were observed in the model group, the traditional Chinese medicine group and the western medicine group at each time point (P<0.01). However, no significant difference was found between the traditional Chinese medicine group and the western medicine group. Compared with the model group, only a small amount of high signal joint imaging and central signal of the femoral head were found by the MRI examination in the traditional Chinese medicine group and the western medicine group. Pathology assay results showed the degree of femoral head osteonecrosis in the Chinese medicine group was milder than that in the Western medicine group. Conclusion Gushiling Capsule and western medicine Simvastatin have the similar effect of reducing plasma TG, which may be one of the mechanisms underlying Gushiling Capsule preventing steroid?induced femoral head necrosis.

BACKGROUND:The angiogenesis may be related to the proliferation of neural stem ceils,but there is still no unified view.OBJECTIVE:To observe the influence of angiogenesis on neural stem cell proliferation in the subventricular zone of rats after focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.METHODS:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal group,sham group,vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)+cerebral ischemia/reperfusion group,normal saline (NS)+cerebral ischemia/reperfusion group.The injection was done via the lateral cerebral ventricle.Then,each group was subdivided into four groups (1,2,7,14 days after ischemia/reperfusion).Focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion models were made by the thread method.After modeling,the corresponding intervention was given in each group.The expression changes of Nestin and vWF mRNA in the subventricular zone were detected in all groups by immunohistochemical staining and real-time PCR,respectively.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There was a certain increase in vWF and Nestin positive expression in the subventricular zone after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.At 7 days after ischemia,the expression of vWF mRNA and Nestin reached the peak,indicating the proliferation of neural stem cells in the subventricular zone after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion is associated with the time of angiogenesis.In addition,the expression of vWF mRNA and Nestin was significantly higher in the VEGF+cerebral ischemia/reperfusion group than the other two groups,indicating angiogenesis could promote the proliferation of neural stem ceils in the subventricular zone of rats after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.

To explore the pharmacological mechanism of glycyrrhizin with series methods of systems pharmacology, main diseases related to glycyrrhizin were obtained by text mining tool; and the target proteins of glycyrrhizin were obtained via the database of Polysearch and PubChem. Then, the target proteins interaction network of glycyrrhizin was built using the software called Cytoscape. Next, the protein groups related to glycyrrhizin were analyzed by using Gene Ontology (GO) tool, and the action pathway of its target proteins was analyzed by using enrichment method. Text mining results showed that the related diseases of glycyrrhizin included chronic hepatitis C, chronic hepatitis, hepatitis, HIV virus, liver cancer and so on. Gene ontology analysis indicated that glycyrrhizin played a role mainly through modification of proteins and chromatin. The signaling pathway enrichment results showed that the main action proteins of glycyrrhizin were related to MAPK signaling pathway, toll-like receptor signaling pathway, neurotrophic factor signaling pathway, cancer and apoptosis pathways. So we can conclude that glycyrrhizin may exert its biological functions primarily by regulating multiple pathways such as MAPK signaling pathway and Toll-like receptors signaling pathway. The pharmacological action of a drug can be rapidly and comprehensively analyzed by the ways of systems pharmacology.

Objective:To explore the clinical value of vestibular autorotation test (VAT) in the treatment for otogenic vertigo patients. Method:One hundred and twenty-nine definite otogenic vertigo patients were included. All patients underwent the VAT and caloric test (CT). The results were analyzed statistically. Result:In VAT examination, 89 (69.0%) cases were abnormal. In CT examination, 56 (43.4%) cases were abnormal. In the contrast test of VAT and CT, VAT results were abnormal in 47 (36.4%) patients and CT results were abnormal in 14 (10.9%) patients. The number of patients whose both VAT and CT results were abnormal was 42 (32.6%). The total number of patients with various abnormal results was 103 (79.8%). According to statistical analysis, the abnormal result rate of VAT was higher than that of CT. The abnormal result rate of both VAT and CT was higher than that of each single test. There was statistic significance in the difference (χ²=1.670, P<0.05). Conclusion:For otogenic vertigo patients, their abnormal result rate of VAT is higher than that of CT. VAT and CT can be mutually complementary. The combination of VAT and CT can help to understand the function of semicircular canal in the general and provide reference for the treatment of otogenic vertigo diseases.

As the core of traditional Chinese medicine theory, Zheng (syndrome, or pattern) classification will promote personalized medicine by changing the clinical diagnosis into a more precise mode when integrating Zheng classification with disease diagnosis approaches. The author adopted rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a disease model, to explore the scientific fundamentals of Zheng classification based on disease diagnosis using systemic biological approaches and evidence-based medicine design, as well as developed novel approaches on the methodology of clinical effectiveness evaluation on Chinese medicine and R&D of combinational drugs design based on Fu Fang (Chinese herbal formula). Some unique research design and methods are herein introduced.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Discovery ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; classification ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Nutrition Therapy ; Precision Medicine ; Syndrome ; Treatment Outcome

Clinical breakpoints are used in phaseⅡorⅢclinical trials to categorize microorganisms if susceptibility to new tested antibacterial agents that means the patient infected by the pathogen will be enrolled the study or not.The role of this consensus is to define procedure and required data to setting breakpoints and how to revaluate it in clinical trials.

The property theory of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is regarded as the core and basic of Chinese medical theory, however, the underlying mechanism of the properties in CHMs remains unclear, which impedes a barrier for the modernization of Chinese herbal medicine. The properties of CHM are often categorized into cold and heat according to the theory of Chinese medicine, which are essential to guide the clinical application of CHMs. There is an urgent demand to build a cold/heat property classification model to facilitate the property theory of Chinese herbal medicine, as well as to clarify the controversial properties of some herbs. Based on previous studies on the cold/heat properties of CHM, in this paper, we described a novel strategy on building a cold/heat property classification model based on herbal bio-effect. The interdisciplinary cooperation of systems biology, pharmacological network, and pattern recognition technique might lighten the study on cold/heat property theory, provide a scientific model for determination the cold/heat property of herbal medicines, and a new strategy for expanding the Chinese herbal medicine resources as well.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

To investigate the distribution of mitochondria DNA 4 977 bp deletion, a common deletion (CD), in normal populations of Chinese, human peripheral blood samples from sixty healthy donors were collected, and levels of the CD in genomic DNA from the samples were detected using real-time PCR. The results showed that the CD was found in 27 health donors, with its positive rate being 45% (27/60). The CD ratio was between 0 and 0.00308%, and not affected by age and gender in sixty healthy donors. Our studies indicate that the CD ratio is low, and do not show the age-dependent accumulation and any gender difference in peripheral whole blood from the normal Chinese population.
Base Sequence ; DNA Primers ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Deletion