Objective: To observe and compare the clinical effects of different electroacupuncture waveforms on primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, three-group, parallel-controlled trial. Participants with primary dysmenorrhea were randomly divided into dense-sparse wave, continuous wave, and discontinuous wave groups in a 1:1:1 ratio. Two lateral Ciliao (BL 32) points were used. All three groups started treatment 3–5 days before menstruation, once a day for six sessions per course of treatment, one course of treatment per menstrual cycle, and three menstrual cycles. The primary outcome measure was the proportion with an average visual analog scale (VAS) score reduction of ≥50% from baseline for dysmenorrhea in the third menstrual cycle during treatment. The secondary outcome measures included changes in dysmenorrhea VAS scores, Cox Menstrual Symptom Scale scores and the proportion of patients taking analgesic drugs. Results: The proportion of cases where the average VAS score for dysmenorrhea decreased by ≥50% from baseline in the third menstrual cycle was not statistically significant (P > .05). Precisely 30 min after acupuncture and regarding immediate analgesia on the most severe day of dysmenorrhea, there was a statistically significant difference in the dense-sparse wave group compared with the other two groups during the third menstrual cycle (P < .05). Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference between the dense-sparse wave and discontinuous wave groups 24 h after acupuncture (P < .05). Conclusions Waveform electroacupuncture can alleviate primary dysmenorrhea and its related symptoms in patients. The three groups showed similar results in terms of short- and long-term analgesic efficacy and a reduction in the number of patients taking analgesic drugs. Regarding achieving immediate analgesia, the dense-sparse wave group was slightly better than the other two groups.

The research focus of diabetes, a common chronic metabolic disease, has shifted from individual factors to environmental factors at the population level. Epidemiological studies suggest an association between exposure to environmental pollutants and the risk of diabetes. Major environmental pollutants include organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, phthalates and their metabolites, and arsenics, which primarily enter the human body through the skin, respiratory tract, and digestive system. Long-term exposure to these pollutants can affect the pathology of diabetes through various mechanisms, such as promoting insulin resistance, causing insulin secretion deficiencies, inducing oxidative stress-induced glucose metabolism disorders, and affecting DNA methylation. However, the potential damaging mechanism of the impact of environmental pollutants on diabetes remain unclear. Limitations such as insufficient sample sizes, uncertainties regarding exposure time and dosage, and differences between single and co-exposures. In the future, it is necessary to focus on exploring and analyzing the mechanisms of environmental pollutant exposure on diabetes to develop effective prevention strategies, control and reduce the incidence and development of diabetes, and provide new insights into its diagnosis and treatment.

Objective:To explore the mechanism of modified Xiaoyao Powder on inflammatory response of rats with syndrome of stagnation of liver qi and spleen deficiency of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT) from the perspective of differentiation of microrna 326 (miR326) regulating Th17 cell.Methods:48 rats were randomly divided into normal group (12 rats) and model group (36 rats) respectively and they were immunized twice a week with high iodine water combined with subcutaneous injection of thyroglobulin. From the fifth to eighth weeks, 36 rats were immunized once a week. From the fifth week, the model group with liver depression and spleen deficiency syndrome of Traditional Chinese Medicine was reproduced with chronic restraint stress, excessive fatigue and eating incoherence methods. The modelrats were randomly divided into model group, Xiaoyao Powder group and Jinshuibao group. Rats in Xiaoyao Powder group were gavaged with 13.63 g/(kg·d) Xiaoyao Powder modified granule suspension, and rats in Jinshuibao group were gavaged with 477 mg/(kg·d) Jinshuibao suspension, twice a day, for 8 weeks.The levels of serum FT3, FT4, TSH, TGAb and TPOAb were detected by ELISA; the expression of miR326, IL-17 mRNA, IL-4 mRNA and IFN-γ mRNA were detected by PCR. The expression of Ets-1 protein in thyroid tissue was detected by Wes method, and the proportion of CD4 + IFNγ + T cells, CD4 + IL-4 + T cells and CD4 + IL-17 + T cells were detected by flow cytometry, HE staining was used to detect the pathological manifestations of thyroid tissue in each group. Results:Compared with the model group, the serum TSH [(3 328.88±724.45) pg/ml vs. (1 900.25±203.91) pg/ml] in Xiaoyao Powder group increased ( P<0.01), TGAb [(63.60±9.01) IU/ml vs. (96.19±10.74) IU/ml] and TPOAb [(6.84±1.45) IU/ml vs. (11.62±2.06) IU/ml] decreased ( P<0.01), and the expression of miR326 (3.57±0.57 vs. 7.63±0.90),IL-17 mRNA (6.71±0.97 vs. 13.02±1.18) significantly decreased ( P<0.01), the expression of Ets-1 (0.71±0.40 vs. 0.39±0.02) significantly increased ( P<0.01), the ratio of CD4 +IFN-γ + T cell [(13.10±2.23)% vs. (20.7±2.07)%], CD4 +IL-17 + T cell ratio [(18.90±1.31)% vs. (25.1±1.03)%] significantly decreased ( P<0.01), and thyroid histopathology changed significantly. Conclusion:Modified Xiaoyao Powder could regulate the expression of target protein Ets-1 upward, inhibit the differentiation of Th17 cells and further reduce the expression of IL-17 mRNA by regulating the expression of mir-326 downward in the thyroid tissue of EAT rats, so as to improve the inflammatory response of rats with liver depression and spleen deficiency.

Astragali radix(AR,the dried root of Astragalus)is a popular herbal remedy in both China and the United States.The commercially available AR is commonly classified into premium graded(PG)and ungraded(UG)ones only according to the appearance.To uncover novel sensitive and specific markers for AR grading,we took the integrated mass spectrometry-based untargeted and targeted metabolomics ap-proaches to characterize chemical features of PG and UG samples in a discovery set(n=16 batches).A series of five differential compounds were screened out by univariate statistical analysis,including arginine,calycosin,ononin,formononetin,and astragaloside Ⅳ,most of which were observed to be accumulated in PG samples except for astragaloside Ⅳ.Then,we performed machine learning on the quantification data of five compounds and constructed a logistic regression prediction model.Finally,the external validation in an independent validation set of AR(n=20 batches)verified that the five com-pounds,as well as the model,had strong capability to distinguish the two grades of AR,with the pre-diction accuracy＞90％.Our findings present a panel of meaningful candidate markers that would significantly catalyze the innovation in AR grading.

Objective:To screen and analyze the differentially expressed genes between lacrimal gland benign lymphoepithelial lesions (LGBLEL) and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma.Methods:A cross-sectional study was performed.Ten consecutive patients were included in Beijing Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from January 2015 to November 2017, including five patients with LGBLEL and five patients with MALT lymphoma.Clinical data and peripheral blood sample were collected from each patient.DNA was extracted from peripheral blood.The whole-exome sequencing (WES) was employed for gene sequencing.The BWA software was used for the screen of differentially expressed gene; GATK software was used to detect genomic variation; ANNOVAR software was used to annotate and predict the effects of the variation; Varscan software was used to analyze single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion-deletions (InDels), and ExomeCNV software was used to identify copy number variations (CNVs). The mutated hub gene with the maximal clique centrality was screened out by the analysis of protein interaction network and construction of functional module network.This study was approved by an Ethics Committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University.Written informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to any medical examination.Results:There was 16.63 Gb sequencing data per sample on average.Synonymous mutation and missense mutation were the most common SNPs mutation types in the LGBLEL group and MALT lymphoma group, and no significant difference was found in gene mumber of synonymous mutation and missense mutation between the two groups.The number of terminating codon missing mutation genes in the LGBLEL group was more than that in the MALT lymphoma group ( P<0.05). The most common InDels types were frameshift mutation, non-frameshift insertion and non-frameshift deletion, and there was no significant difference in gene number of InDels between the LGBLEL group and MALT lymphoma group.The number of exon CNVs was few in both two groups and showed no significant influence in final result.Six differentially expressed hub genes were found, including IGFN1, TCP10, SLC45A4, BTBD7, PHGR1 and PIEZ02. Conclusions:IGFN1, TCP10, SLC45A4, BTBD7, PHGR1 and PIEZ02 genes may participate in the development of LGBLEL into MALT lymphoma.

Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is a kind of autoimmune disease which has complex clinical manifestations.The treatment is diverse and controversial but the effect is uncertain.Nonsurgical treatment is particularly critical in the process of diseases.However, there is no uniform standard for clinical use among various methods,which often makes it difficult to develop the treatment program.This paper summarizes and compares the methods that have been proven or are expected to be effective in the treatment of TAO in recent years, which committed to provide a reference for clinicians.

Objective To focus on how to bring the international teaching methods, assessment methods and indicators of the rehabilitation clinical practice on the basis of the local conditions.Methods By analyzing the problems found in the years of clinical teaching, and combining with research status home and abroad, the clinical teaching standards of WCPT were analyzed, and the design of establishing international standard rehabilitation practical base in local area was proposed. This paper discussed and shared our learning and suggestion in practice.Results This paper solved a series of issues of this clinical practical base, such as positioning, training methods and assess, and broke the traditional teaching mode of emphasizing pedagogical part.Conclusion It is very important to strengthen the skills training, improve the assessment system, and establish multiple assessment ways to clinical skills.

Mammalian eyes mediate both image-forming and non-image-forming visual functions. Non-image-forming vision provides a measure of the ambient light for the purposes of synchronization of circadian clocks to light/dark cycles and regulation of pupil size,pineal melatonin production and other functions. Traditionally,people used to believe that the classical photoreceptors (rods and cones) regulate both image-forming and non-image-forming visual pathways. However,a small subset of retinal ganglion cells called intrinsically photosensitive RGCs ( ipRGCs) has been identified to be a third type of mammalian photoreceptor and determined to be photosensitive, recently. The discovery of ipRGCs has allowed for rapid progress in the past decade toward understanding the non-image-forming visual system,especially about how the circadian clock complete the synchronization with the light/dark cycle. The anatomical and developmental characteristics of ipRGCs, as well as its biological functions and regulation were reviewed in this paper.

[Abstract] Objective: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of PD-1/PD-L1 in gastric cancer (GC) tissues. Methods: Paraffin embedded tumor tissues and clinical data of 82 GC patients who had undergone operation at the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2007 to December 2007 were collected, and their survival status was followed. The protein expressions of PD-1 and PD-L1 in tumor tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Log-Rank test were adopted to analyze the survival of GC patients, and the ROC curve was plotted. Results: The positive rate of PD-L1 protein expression was 42.68% while the positive rate of PD-1 expression was 13.41% in GC tissues. The positive rate of PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in GC tissues of patients without pre-operative distant metastasis was significantly lower than those patients with pre-operative metastasis (PD1： 3.28% vs 42.86%; PD-L1： 13.11% vs 90.48%; all P<0.01). The positive rate of PD-L1 expression in tumor stroma of patients without pre-operative distant metastasis was significantly lower than those with metastasis (PD-L1: 13.11% v s 47.62%, P<0.01). The resection range of stomach, PD-L1 over-expression and the presence of pre-operative distant metastasis were the adverse factors affecting the prognosis of patients with GC (P<0.05). Conclusion: PD-1 and PD-L1 expressions in GC tissues were closely related to the presence of pre-operative distant metastasis and the depth of tumor infiltration. The postoperative survival of patients who were PD-L1 positive was shorter than the negative ones.

Objective To investigate the risk factors associated with neovascular glaucoma (NVG) after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in eyes with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).Methods Retrospective study.One hundred and thirty-seven patients (137 eyes) with PDR who underwent PPV were recruited.There were 85 males and 52 females.The average age was (60.1 ± 8.8) years old.The duration of diabetes was (10.2 ± 3.6) years.There were 49 patients with ipsilateral carotid artery stenosis.Fifty-three eyes underwent intravitreal ranibizumab or conbercept injection before PPV.All eyes were treated with 23G standard three-port PPV.The average follow-up time after PPV was 11.5 months.Fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) was conducted in postoperative 4-6 weeks to observe non-perfused retinal areas.Risk factors,such as ipsilateral carotid artery stenosis,the presence of non-perfusion in retina after PPV and the application of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs before PPV,were identified by logistic regression.Results Twenty of 137 patients (14.6％) developed postoperative NVG after PPV.Ipsilateral carotid artery stenosis [odds ratio (OR) =5.048,95％ confidence interval (CI) 2.057-12.389,P=0.000] and the presence of non-perfusion in retina after PPV (OR=4.274,95％CI 1.426-12.809,P=0.009) were significant risk factors for postoperative NVG,while the application of anti-VEGF drugs was not (OR=1.426,95％CI 0.463-4.395,P=0.536).But the time from PPV to the onset of NVG varies significantly between the two groups of injection of anti-VEGF drugs or not (t=-4.370,P=0.000).Conclusions Risk factors associated with NVG after PPV in eyes with PDR included ipsilateral carotid artery stenosis and the presence of non-perfusion in retina after PPV.The application of anti-VEGF drugs before PPV can delay the onset of NVG in PDR eyes after vitrectomy.