Animal experiments are crucial in evaluating the preclinical safety and efficacy of new dental materials, drugs, instruments, and equipment by identifying and eliminating potential health risks to humans. An international team of several dental experts formulated a guideline named Preferred Reporting Items for Animal Studiesin Endodontology (PRIASE) 2021. Consisting of 11 domains, 43 individual items, and a flowchart. PRIASE provides guidance for animal experiments in dentistry and improves the quality of experiment design and reporting. This work introduces the process and basic content of the guideline and interprets the key items of its checklist with specific examples to provide reference for the reporting of animal experiment in dentistry in China.
Animals ; Animal Experimentation/standards* ; Checklist ; China ; Endodontics ; Guidelines as Topic ; Research Design

This study aims to assess the methodological and reporting quality of animal experimental studies on the treatment of cervical radiculopathy(CR) with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), analyze the deficiencies during the experimental process, and develop the methods to enhance the quality of such studies. The related articles were retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. The methodological quality and reporting quality of the included studies were evaluated according to the risk of bias tool of the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation(SYRCLE) and the Animal Research: Reporting of in vivo Experiments(ARRIVE) 2.0 guidelines, respectively. A total of 4 086 articles were initially screened, in which 71 articles met the inclusion criteria. The SYRCLE's risk of bias tool revealed selection bias, performance bias, detection bias, and attrition bias of the included studies. The aspects for improvement were identified in the randomization of animal grouping, experimental implementation and outcome assessment, blinding, reporting baseline characteristics, and handling incomplete data. The essential item assessment of the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines showed high risks in sample size determination, inclusion and exclusion criteria, randomization, blinding, outcome assessment, statistical methods, experimental procedures, and results reporting. Additionally, there were high risks in items recommended by ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines, including study background, ethical statements, animal care, interpretation/scientific implications, generalizability/translation, experimental protocol registration, data availability, and conflict of interest declaration. The existing animal experimental studies about the TCM treatment of CR exhibited methodological and reporting deficiencies. We recommend that researchers refer to the SYRCLE's risk of bias tool and the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines to rigorously design, implement, and report experiments in a standardized manner, thereby enhancing the scientific, authentic, and reproducible properties of the experiments.
Radiculopathy/therapy* ; Animals ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage* ; Humans ; Animal Experimentation/standards* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Research Design/standards*

This study aims to establish the standard items for conducting and reporting rapid review(RR) in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and promote the RR transparency in TCM. First, the basic standard items of conducting and reporting RR were reviewed, on the basis of which the basic RR implementation methods and steps were summarized. The initial item pool of RR implementation and reporting standards in TCM was established with the Delphi method. According to the identified items, two rounds of expert consultation were carried out. In the first round of expert consultation, experts judged the importance of each item in the RR implementation and reporting process and gave the corresponding weight score. According to the results in the first round of expert consultation, the relevant items were modified for the second round of expert consultation, in which experts were invited to score the importance of each item with consideration to the results from the first round. According to the results from preliminary research and expert consultation, the standard for conducting and reporting RR in TCM was formed. After two rounds of consultation, 12 first-level items and 24 second-level items were included. These items involved need positioning and working group establishment, research problem summarization, protocol formulation, literature retrieval, research screening, data extraction, methodological quality evaluation or risk of bias assessment, evidence organization, evidence assessment and grading, research report writing, RR product dissemination, post-effect evaluation and other fields. This study established the standard for conducting and reporting RR in TCM, which can be used as a reference for the RR methodology in TCM and provide evidence support for decision makers.
Medicine, Chinese Traditional/standards* ; Humans ; Research Design/standards*

As one of the key components of clinical trials, blinding, if successfully implemented, can help to mitigate the risks of implementation bias and measurement bias, consequently improving the validity and reliability of the trial results. However, successful blinding in clinical trials of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is hard to achieve, and the evaluation of blinding success through blinding assessment lacks established guidelines. Taking into account the challenges associated with blinding in the TCM field, here we present a framework for assessing blinding. Further, this study proposes a blinding assessment protocol for TCM clinical trials, building upon the framework and the existing methods. An assessment report checklist and an approach for evaluating the assessment results are presented based on the proposed protocol. It is anticipated that these improvements to blinding assessment will generate greater awareness among researchers, facilitate the standardization of blinding, and augment the blinding effectiveness. The use of this blinding assessment may further advance the quality and precision of TCM clinical trials and improve the accuracy of the trial results. The blinding assessment protocol will undergo continued optimization and refinement, drawing upon expert consensus and experience derived from clinical trials. Please cite this article as: Wang XC, Liu XY, Shi KL, Meng QG, Yu YF, Wang SY, Wang J, Qu C, Lei C, Yu XP. Blinding assessment in clinical trials of traditional Chinese medicine: Exploratory principles and protocol. J Integr Med. 2023; 21(6): 528-536.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods* ; Outcome Assessment, Health Care ; Reference Standards ; Reproducibility of Results ; Research Design ; Clinical Trials as Topic

The research on the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine is the key and core foundation to improve processing technologies of Chinese medicine, formulate the quality standards of Chinese medicinal pieces, enhance the clinical efficacy of Chinese medicine, enrich Chinese medicine processing theories, and promote the development of Chinese medicine processing. Many researc-hers have conducted in-depth exploration on the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine in the 20 years in the 21 st century. Significant progress has been made in the transformation of chemical components during the processing, the change of active components in the body, the law of toxicity attenuation in the processing of toxic Chinese medicine, the mechanism of efficacy enhancement and toxicity attenuation of processing with auxiliary materials, and the application of new biomedical technologies. At present, the processing mechanism of multiple Chinese medicines has been preliminarily clarified, which has greatly promoted the development of Chinese me-dicine processing. The development of the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine reveals that the in vitro transformation of chemical components is combined with the in vivo absorption, transport, and metabolism, and the macroscopic biological effects of the organism are combined with the cells, molecules, targets, and pathways in the study of the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine. More attention has been paid to exploring the processing mechanism from the overall level, and a modern systematic research system on the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine has been initially formed. To further promote the scientific development of Chinese me-dicine processing, the present study proposed that the research on the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine should take Chinese medicine properties into account, focus on the influence of disease condition on the mode of action and effect strength of the drugs, comply with the characteristics of clinical compound compatibility of Chinese medicine, use the holistic view research strategies of systems bio-logy, and deeply explore the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine from traditional Chinese medicine theories and the characteristics of clinical medication of Chinese medicine.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Reference Standards ; Research Design ; Technology

By analyzing the main problems existing in the current management of medical devices for clinical trials, this study proposes a feasible management model and specific requirements for acceptance, distribution, storage and recovery combining with the characteristics of medical consumable equipment and diagnostic reagent, which provides a favorable guarantee for the authenticity and reliability of clinical trials.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; Equipment and Supplies/standards* ; Indicators and Reagents/standards* ; Reproducibility of Results ; Research Design/standards*

With the development of society, more and more foreign natural medicines have entered China, but they are faced with the problem that they are not given with the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) properties when they are used with other TCM. When we carried out the research on introducing foreign natural plant resources to TCM, gradually, a new research model and field with original characteristics of TCM--the study of new foreign introducing TCM had been formed. In the process of it, we explored and summarized research rules to form the research paradigm, which will be conducive to the standardization and scientization of new foreign introducing TCM research. For the research of foreign introducing TCM, we analyzed the research background, reviewed the application history, sorted out the research status, elaborated the concept and summarized the research achievements. On this basis, we put forward the concept and system of the modern research paradigm of new foreign introducing TCM, studied and clarified the core elements, properties and research principles of this paradigm, and summarized the research contents and methods of new foreign introducing TCM. We interpreted the foundation of paradigm construction from multiple perspectives. The paradigm was the practical application of theoretical innovation of TCM. Under the guidance of it, more and more varieties of new foreign introducing TCM will be studied, the study will be more standardized, the conclusions will be more scientific and reliable, which will inspire and guide more researchers to focus on the research of new foreign introducing TCM, and the paradigm itself will be constantly improved. The construction and application of the paradigm will certainly accelerate the innovative research of foreign introducing TCM and play a historic role in promoting the enrichment of traditional Chinese medicine varieties.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Internationality ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plant Preparations/standards* ; Research Design

With the development of the methodology of clinical trials and the appearance of medical big data, the real-world study (RWS) presents its unique advantages, plays a role in clinical practice and research, and its importance is more and more recognized by scholars in recent years. In surgical research field, due to the specificity of surgical diseases and operational procedures, confounding factors and risk of bias are greatly higher than those of traditional medications. Therefore, using unique advantages of the RWS to solve the actual clinical problem in surgical field is the main goal of performing surgical RWS. This article will systematically elucidate how to perform the surgical RWS and the special matters of concern in carrying out surgical RWS.
Clinical Studies as Topic ; methods ; standards ; General Surgery ; standards ; Humans ; Research Design ; standards ; Surgical Procedures, Operative ; standards

In 1952, the Japanese Society for Hygiene had once passed a resolution at its 22nd symposium on population control, recommending the suppression of population growth based on the idea of cultivating a healthier population in the area of eugenics. Over half a century has now passed since this recommendation; Japan is witnessing an aging of the population (it is estimated that over 65-year-olds made up 27.7% of the population in 2017) and a decline in the birth rate (total fertility rate 1.43 births per woman in 2017) at a rate that is unparalleled in the world; Japan is faced with a "super-aging" society with low birth rate. In 2017, the Society passed a resolution to encourage all scientists to engage in academic researches to address the issue of the declining birth rate that Japan is currently facing. In this commentary, the Society hereby declares that the entire text of the 1952 proposal is revoked and the ideas relating to eugenics is rejected. Since the Society has set up a working group on the issue in 2016, there have been three symposiums, and working group committee members began publishing a series of articles in the Society's Japanese language journal. This commentary primarily provides an overview of the findings from the published articles, which will form the scientific basis for the Society's declaration. The areas we covered here included the following: (1) improving the social and work environment to balance between the personal and professional life; (2) proactive education on reproductive health; (3) children's health begins with nutritional management in women of reproductive age; (4) workplace environment and occupational health; (5) workplace measures to counter the declining birth rate; (6) research into the effect of environmental chemicals on sexual maturity, reproductive function, and the children of next generation; and (7) comprehensive research into the relationship among contemporary society, parental stress, and healthy child-rearing. Based on the seven topics, we will set out a declaration to address Japan's aging society with low birth rate.
Aging ; Birth Rate ; trends ; Child ; Child Health ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; prevention & control ; Female ; Health Planning Guidelines ; Humans ; Japan ; epidemiology ; Male ; Occupational Health ; Reproductive Health ; education ; Research Design ; standards ; Societies, Scientific ; organization & administration ; Stress, Psychological ; prevention & control ; Women's Health

Health food containing Chinese materia medica has many advantages in health preservation and reducing the risk of disease occurrence,which meets people's demands for " great health" and " preventive treatment of disease". However,due to its complex ingredients,diverse quality of raw materials,as well as the vagueness and lack of integrity for existing quality standards,chaos is caused in the health food market,which restricts its healthy development and also poses new challenges to the quality control of healthy food. At present,the total component content or single component content is determined in most functional/marker component examinations. Safety and microbial detection methods fail to cover the contamination range of the raw materials of Chinese materia medica.Therefore,it is impossible to meet the purpose of ensuring authenticity,safety and efficacy. In recent years,a lot of Chinese materia medica extracts have been used as raw materials for food products,but many extracts lack standards. The author believes that the quality control of health food containing Chinese materia medicas should start with the quality control of Chinese materia medica extracts. In this way,product quality is controlled from source to ensure product consistency; secondly,the overall quality control should be strengthened to ensure the authenticity of the products; the scope of safety inspection shall be expanded to fundamentally ensure the safety of products. At the same time,we should strengthen the quality control of whole process and strengthen the overall quality control of raw materials to produce health food of high quality.
Food ; standards ; Materia Medica ; standards ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Quality Control ; Research Design