Oral solid dosage forms require processes such as disintegration and dissolution to release the drug before it can be absorbed and utilized by the body. In this manuscript, imaging technology was used to continuously visualize and characterize the in vitro static drug release process of gliclazide modified release tablets from 15 manufacturers, combined with the traditional method of in vitro dissolution testing, to determine the release profile of gliclazide modified release tablets, to evaluate the similarity of the release profiles by using the similarity factor (f₂) method and based on the analysis of the release profiles fitted with a variety of mathematical models. The results indicate that the gliclazide modified release tablets produced by 14 companies are hydrophilic gel matrix tablets. Compared to the reference listed drug, the release profiles of formulations from 11 companies show high similarity (f₂ > 50) to the reference. Among these, formulations with visual characteristics similar to the reference exhibit similar release curves. This study provides an alternative method for the in vitro consistency evaluation of gliclazide modified release tablets, aiming to assess the in vitro release behaviour of generic formulations more accurately and comprehensively.

Objective To analyse the clinical efficiency of endolymphatic sac surgery (ESS) in the management of Meniere’s disease (MD). Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 274 patients with MD who were hospitalized for treatment in Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University from January 2009 to August 2023. All patients received lifestyle management and drug treatment such as diuretics. For those whose conditions were not well controlled 3 to 6 months after the initial treatment, intratympanic glucocorticoid (ITG) or ESS treatment was carried out. Six months after the treatment, the classes of vertigo relief and hearing changes in the patients were evaluated. After adjusting the confounding factors through propensity score matching (PSM), the impact of ESS on the prognosis of MD patients was evaluated. Results Among 274 patients, 194 and 80 patients underwent ITG and ESS, respectively. Eighty patients were enrolled into each group after PSM. Before and after PSM, the rate of patients reaching vertigo relief class A in ESS group was higher than that in the ITG group (P＝0.004); there was no significant difference in hearing preservation between the two groups. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis showed that vertigo relief in the ESS group was better than that in the ITG group (P=0.029); there was no statistically significant difference in hearing preservation between the two groups. Conclusion When the initial treatment for patients with MD is ineffective, choosing ESS is more beneficial than ITG for controlling vertigo.

Separation and determination of chiral and achiral impurities in glimepiride tablets by supercritical fluid chromatography. Chiral and achiral impurities were separated on a ACQUITY UPC² Trefoil^TM CEL1 column (150 mm × 3.0 mm, 2.5 μm) maintained at 30 ℃ with the mobile phase containing a mixture of CO₂ and methanol-isopropanol (1∶1) at 1 mL·min^-1, and the detection wavelength was set at 228 nm. The back pressure was set at 13.8 MPa. The injection volume was 5 μL. In the chromatogram of the system suitability solution, the peaks elute in the following order: impurity Ⅳ, impurity Ⅴ, glimepiride, impurity Ⅲ, impurity Ⅰ and impurity Ⅱ. The six substances were separated successfully in 6 min using the proposed method with a resolution factor of 2.9, 1.6, 3.0, 2.0, 6.4. The impurity Ⅰ-Ⅴ detection limit (S/N = 3) was 0.17, 0.10, 0.06, 0.15, 0.10 μg·mL^-1, respectively. Good linear relationship was established between the peak response and the concentration in the range of 0.48-51.30 μg·mL^-1 for all impurities. The spiked recovery of impurity Ⅰ-Ⅴ was found to be acceptable for 99.9%, 98.9%, 102.1%, 100.1%, 96.3% (n = 9), respectively. The related substance and assay results of 11 sample batches are consistent with the results obtained using the HPLC method in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Compared to the two HPLC methods in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the established supercritical fluid chromatography method can simultaneously separate glimepiride and its 5 impurities in a single run, and it has the following advantages: simplified sample preparation, greatly reducing the volumes of organic solvents, environmentally friendly, high accuracy and good reproducibility. It can be employed for the quality control of the chiral and achiral impurities in glimepiride tablets.

Near infrared spectroscopy(NIRS)technology combined with chemometrics algorithms has been widely used in quantitative and qualitative analysis of food and medicine.However,traditional chemometrics methods,especially linear classification methods,often yield unsatisfactory results when addressing multi-class classification problems.Convolutional neural network(CNN)is adept at extracting deep-level features from data and suitable for handling non-linear relationships.The modeling performance of CNN depends on the size and diversity of sample,while the collection and preprocessing of NIRS sample data is often time-consuming and labor-intensive.This study proposed a NIRS qualitative analysis method based on data augmentation strategies and CNN.The data augmentation strategy included two steps.Firstly,applying Bootstrap resampling and generative adversarial network(GAN)methods to augment three NIRS datasets(Medicine,coffee and grape).Secondly,combining the original samples(Y)with the Bootstrap augmented samples(B)and GAN augmented samples(G)to obtain three augmented datasets(Y-B,Y-G and Y-B-G).Based on this,a CNN model structure suitable for these datasets was designed,consisting of 2 one-dimensional convolutional layers,1 max-pooling layer,and 1 fully connected layer.The results showed that compared to the optimal models of partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA),support vector machine(SVM),and back propagation neural network(BP),the CNN model based on Y-B dataset achieved average accuracy improvements of 3.998%,9.364%,and 4.689%for medicine(Binary classification);the CNN model based on the Y-B-G dataset achieved average accuracy improvements of 6.001%,2.004%,and 7.523%for coffee(7-class classification);and the CNN model based on the Y-B dataset achieved average accuracy improvements of 33.408%,51.994%,and 34.378%for grapes(20-class classification).It was evident that the models established based on data augmentation strategies and CNN demonstrated better classification accuracy and generalization performance with different datasets and classification categories.

Pharyngitis can be caused by various pathogens,including viruses and bacteria.Group A streptococcus(GAS)is the most common bacterial cause of pharyngitis.However,distinguishing GAS pharyngitis from other types of upper respiratory tract infections is challenging in clinical settings.This often leads to empirical treatments and,consequently,the overuse of antimicrobial drugs.With the advancement of antimicrobial drug management and healthcare payment reform initiatives in China,reducing unnecessary testing and prescriptions of antimicrobial drugs is imperative.To promote standardized diagnosis and treatment of GAS pharyngitis,this article reviews various international guidelines on the clinical diagnosis and differential diagnosis of GAS pharyngitis,particularly focusing on clinical scoring systems guiding laboratory testing and antimicrobial treatment decisions for GAS pharyngitis and their application recommendations,providing a reference for domestic researchers and clinical practitioners.

The effect of porcine SIRT5 on replication of foot and mouth disease virus type O(FMDV-O)and the underlying regulatory mechanism were investigated.Western blot and RT-qPCR analyses were employed to monitor expression of endoge-nous SIRT5 in PK-15 cells infected with FMDV-O.Three pairs of SIRT5-specific siRNAs were synthesized.Changes to SIRT5 and FMDV-O protein and transcript levels,in addition to virus copy numbers,were measured by western blot and RT-qPCR analyses.PK-15 cells were transfected with a eukaryotic SIRT5 expression plasmid.Western blot and RT-qPCR analyses were used to explore the impact of SIRT5 overexpression on FMDV-O replication.Meanwhile,RT-qPCR analysis was used to detect the effect of SIRT5 overexpression on the mRNA expression levels of type I interferon-stimulated genes induced by SeV and FMDV-O.The results showed that expression of SIRT5 was up-regulated in PK-15 cells infected with FMDV-O and siRNA interfered with SIRT5 to inhibit FMDV-O replication.SIRT5 overexpression promoted FMDV-O replication.SIRT5 over-expression decreased mRNA expression levels of interferon-stimulated genes induced by SeV and FMDV-O.These results suggest that FMDV-O infection stimulated expression of SIRT5 in PK-15 cells,while SIRT5 promoted FMDV-O rep-lication by inhibiting production of type I interferon-stimula-ted genes.These findings provide a reference to further ex-plore the mechanism underlying the ability of porcine SIRT5 to promote FMDV-O replication.

Objective:To construct an evaluation index system of internal control medical equipment based on the internal control theory of The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission(COSO)and combined with the current situation of medical equipment internal management in public hospitals,so as to provide reference and suggestions for the evaluation of internal control of medical equipment in public hospitals.Methods:Through literature research and expert consultation,the evaluation index system of internal control of medical equipment was preliminarily determined.Using the Delphi method,15 experts from 1 medical college and 3 tertiary hospitals in Beijing who were engaged in the use and management of medical equipment were selected to conduct two rounds of consultation on the evaluation index system of internal control of medical equipment,and the evaluation indicators were scored and screened.The analytic hierarchy process(AHP)was used to determine the index weights,and the internal control evaluation index system of medical equipment in public hospitals based on COSO was constructed.Results:The coefficient of the two rounds of expert consultation was 100%.The authority degree of consulting experts was 0.867.Finally,the evaluation index system of internal control of medical equipment in tertiary public hospitals was formed,which included 5 first-level indicators,17 second-level indicators and 50 third-level indicators.Conclusion:The evaluation index of internal control of medical equipment in public hospitals based on COSO has high expert enthusiasm,authority and coordination.The evaluation index system includes the unit level and the business level of internal control,with a wide coverage,which makes up for the limitations of traditional internal evaluation of medical equipment,which can make up for the limitations of the internal evaluation of traditional medical equipment,improve the internal control system of medical equipment in public hospitals,and optimize the medical equipment management system.

Objective:To construct an effectiveness evaluation model of internal control of medical equipment in public hospitals based on fuzzy analytic network process(F-ANP),and to improve the level of internal control management of medical equipment in hospitals.Methods:Through literature research and analysis,based on the internal control theory system of The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission(COSO),combined with the characteristics of medical equipment management in public hospitals,the effectiveness evaluation model of internal control of medical equipment in public hospitals was established by F-ANP,which was combining analytic network process(ANP)and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation.An empirical analysis was carried out on the internal control of medical equipment in Beijing Friendship Hospital,Capital Medical University.Results:The index system for model evaluation included 5 first-level indicators of control environment,risk evaluation,control activities,information exchange,and supervision mechanism,17 second-level indicators,and 50 third-level indicators.The model was used to evaluate the effectiveness of internal control of medical equipment in the hospital,its maximum membership value was 0.133 7,and the result was"relatively effective",indicating that the construction and implementation of internal control of medical equipment in the hospital were relatively perfect,while the management of scrapping of medical equipment,cost control and equipment informatization construction still need to be improved.Conclusion:The effectiveness evaluation model of internal control of medical equipment of public hospitals based on F-ANP can provide certain reference value for evaluation of the effectiveness of internal control of medical equipment in public hospitals,which is conducive to standardizing internal control of medical equipment,promoting the fine management of medical equipment and ensuring the safety of medical equipment assets.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological surveys on heart failure (HF) in Chinese community are relatively lacking. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and incidence of HF among community residents in southern China. METHODS: Baseline data of this prospective study was collected from 2015 to 2017 among 12,013 permanent residents aged ≥ 35 years in Guangzhou, China. The same survey process was carried out for individuals aged ≥ 65 years after a three-year follow-up. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of HF in community residents aged ≥ 35 years was 1.06%. Male had significantly higher risk of HF prevalence [odds ratio (OR) = 1.50, P = 0.027]. The gender-adjusted risk of HF was 1.48 times higher per 10 years aging. HF prevalence was statistically associated with atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after adjusting for age and gender (OR = 8.30, 5.17, 1.11, 2.28, respectively; all P < 0.05). HF incidence in individuals aged ≥ 65 years were 847 per 100,000 person-years. Baseline atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, and diabetes mellitus were risk factors for HF incidence for individuals aged ≥ 65 years adjusting for age and gender (OR = 5.05, 3.99, 2.11, respectively; all P < 0.05). Besides, residents with new-onset atrial fibrillation and myocardial infarction were at significantly higher risk of progression to HF (OR = 14.41, 8.54, respectively; all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both pre-existing and new-onset cardiovascular diseases were associated with HF incidence in southern China. Management of related cardiovascular diseases may be helpful to reduce the incidence of HF.

This study investigated the mechanism of Danggui Shaoyao Powder(DSP) against mitophagy in rat model of Alzheimer's disease(AD) induced by streptozotocin(STZ) based on PTEN induced putative kinase 1(PINK1)-Parkin signaling pathway. The AD rat model was established by injecting STZ into the lateral ventricle, and the rats were divided into normal group, model group, DSP low-dose group(12 g·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)), DSP medium-dose group(24 g·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)), and DSP high-dose group(36 g·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)). Morris water maze test was used to detect the learning and memory function of the rats, and transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence were employed to detect mitophagy. The protein expression levels of PINK1, Parkin, LC3BⅠ/LC3BⅡ, and p62 were assayed by Western blot. Compared with the normal group, the model group showed a significant decrease in the learning and memory function(P<0.01), reduced protein expression of PINK1 and Parkin(P<0.05), increased protein expression of LC3BⅠ/LC3BⅡ and p62(P<0.05), and decreased occurrence of mitophagy(P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the DSP medium-and high-dose groups notably improved the learning and memory ability of AD rats, which mainly manifested as shortened escape latency, leng-thened time in target quadrants and elevated number of crossing the platform(P<0.05 or P<0.01), remarkably activated mitophagy(P<0.05), up-regulated the protein expression of PINK1 and Parkin, and down-regulated the protein expression of LC3BⅠ/LC3BⅡ and p62(P<0.05 or P<0.01). These results demonstrated that DSP might promote mitophagy mediated by PINK1-Parkin pathway to remove damaged mitochondria and improve mitochondrial function, thereby exerting a neuroprotective effect.
Rats ; Animals ; Mitophagy ; Alzheimer Disease/genetics* ; Powders ; Protein Kinases/metabolism* ; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/metabolism*