Objective: To explore the distribution of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes in children with hepatolenticular degeneration (Wilson disease, WD) based on factor analysis and cluster analysis. Methods: From November 2018 to November 2023, general information (gender, age of admission, age of onset, course of disease, clinical staging, Western medicine clinical symptoms, and family history) and TCM four-examination informations (symptoms and signs) were retrospectively collected from 757 cases of children with WD at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, and factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to investigate TCM syndromes in children with WD. Results: A total of 757 children with WD were included, of which 483 were male and 274 were female; the median age at admission was 12.58 years, the median age at onset was 8.33 years, and the median course of disease was 24.37 months; clinical typing result indicated 506 cases of hepatic type, 133 cases of brain type, 99 cases of mixed-type, and 19 cases of other type; 36.46% of the children had no clinical symptoms (elevated aminotransferases or abnormalities in copper biochemistry); a total of 177 cases had a definite family history, and 10 cases had a suspected family history. Forty-three TCM four-examination information were obtained, with the top 10 in descending order being feeling listless and weak, brown urine, slow action, inappetence, dim complexion, slurred speech, angular salivation, body weight loss, hand and foot tremors, and abdominal fullness. In children with WD, the syndrome element of disease location was primarily characterized by the liver, involving the spleen and kidney, and the syndrome elements of disease nature were characterized by dampness, heat, and yin deficiency. Based on factor analysis and cluster analysis, five TCM syndromes were derived, which were, in order, syndrome of dampness-heat accumulation (265 cases, 35.01%), syndrome of yin deficiency of the liver and kidney (202 cases, 26.68%), syndrome of liver hyperactivity with spleen deficiency (185 cases, 24.44%), syndrome of qi and blood deficiency (79 cases, 10.44%), and syndrome of yang deficiency of the spleen and kidney (26 cases, 3.43%). Conclusion The TCM syndromes of children with WD were primarily syndromes of dampness-heat accumulation, yin deficiency of the liver and kidney, and liver hyperactivity with spleen deficiency. The liver was the main disease location, and the disease nature was characterized by deficiency in origin and excess in superficiality, excess and deficiency mixed. These findings suggest that treating children with WD should be based on the liver while also considering the spleen and kidney.

Objective:To investigate the value of the five-sectional screening method of the central nervous system（CNS）in early detection of fetal CNS abnormalities during the first trimester.Methods:The data of pregnant women who underwent nuchal translucency（NT）screening at the Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from September 2018 to September 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. And a five-sectional screening method of CNS was performed in all fetuses at the meantime. The five-sectional screening protocol in the first trimester consists of the mid-sagittal plane of the fetal head，trans-ventricular plane，trans-thalamus plane，axial plane of the fetal head at the posterior fossa level，and the sagittal plane of the fetal spine. All fetuses underwent ultrasound screening during the second trimester and the third trimester sequentially after NT screening. All the ultrasound findings were tracked，and all fetuses were followed up until delivery or after induction. Fetuses with CNS abnormalities found or suspected in the first trimester were reviewed by at least one senior physician，and follow-up examinations were routinely performed after 2 weeks to further confirm the diagnosis or find other abnormalities that may be present.Results:A total of 13 679 fetuses were screened，included 11 415 singleton pregnancies and 1 132 twin pregnancies. Among them，there were 289 cases of missed follow-up and unexplained fetal death，included 263 singleton pregnancies and 13 twin pregnancies. A total of 13 390 fetuses were finally included，among which，35 cases developed CNS abnormalities with 34 cases detected by prenatal ultrasound and 1 case of closed spina bifida missed in prenatal diagnosis，and the detection rate of CNS malformation by prenatal ultrasound was 97.14%（34/35）. Of the 35 fetuses with CNS abnormalities，24 were detected by the CNS five-sectional screening method in the first trimester，with a sensitivity of 68.57%，a specificity of 100%，a positive predictive value of 100%，and a negative predictive value of 99.92%. Among them，there were 2 cases of anencephaly，3 cases of exencephaly and 6 cases of encephalocele were all detected in the first trimester. In addition，6 cases of holoprosencephaly，3 cases of severe ventriculomegaly，2 cases of open spina bifida，and 2 cases of Dandy-Walker malformation were detected in the first trimester. In this study，1 case of agenesis of corpus callosum（ACC），1 case of arachnoid cyst，1 case of lissencephaly，1 case of schizencephaly，and 1 case of mega cisterna magna were not detected in early pregnancy.Conclusions:The fetal five-sectional screening method of CNS in the first trimester has high specificity，positive predictive value and negative predictive value for the detection of fetal CNS abnormalities，but the sensitivity is moderate. The five-sectional screening method for CNS in early pregnancy may be an effective method for early detection of fetal CNS abnormalities.

Objective:To explore the clinical application value of artificial intelligence（AI）-assisted training in enhancing the accuracy of nuchal translucency（NT）identification，standardization of measurement，and diagnostic efficacy for abnormalities among ultrasound residents.Methods:A retrospective collection of 300 standard fetal NT ultrasound images was conducted at the Center for Medical Ultrasound，Suzhou Hospital Affiliated of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. The AI model performed NT measurements and diagnoses once. Four sonographers of different seniority levels（including two resident physicians）independently conducted NT measurements and diagnoses twice. Prior to the experiment，the middle-age and resident sonographers had uniformly completed traditional theory training. Following the first independent measurements，the two resident sonographers received additional AI-assisted training，after which all 4 sonographers performed the second independent measurements. A fetal medicine expert evaluated blindly all the results and compared the differences in NT recognition accuracy，measurement standard rate and diagnosis accuracy between the middle-age sonographer（traditional training only）and two resident sonographers（traditional + AI-assisted training）.Results:For the middle-aged sonographer who only received traditional lecture-based training，the accuracy of NT recognition，standardization rate of measurement，or diagnostic accuracy were not significantly improved befroe and after the training，and the diffrence was not statistically significant（ χ2=0.189，1.887，0.326；all P>0.05）. In contrast，the second-year resident（Resident 2）and first-year resident（Resident 1），who received both traditional lecture-based training and AI training，demonstrated some improvements in the accuracy of NT measurement site recognition，though the differences were not statistically significant（ χ2=1.301，2.418；all P>0.05）. However，both residents did significant improvements in the standardization rate of NT measurement（ χ2=25.768，17.035；all P<0.05）. In terms of diagnostic accuracy，Resident 1 did significant improvement（ χ2=10.180， P<0.05），while Resident 2 also did some improvement，though the difference was not statistically significant（ χ2=2.573， P>0.05）. Conclusions:The AI-assisted training system enhances the ability of ultrasound resident sonographers to recognize，measure，and diagnose NT，providing a novel and efficient training model for standardized residency training in ultrasound specialties.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of fetal cardiac ultrasound view visualization in the first trimester for congenital heart disease（CHD）.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 13 323 singleton fetuses who underwent first-trimester（11-13 +6 weeks）ultrasound screening at the Ultrasound Medicine Center，the Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. Cardiac views including the four-chamber view（4CV），left ventricular outflow tract view（LVOT），and Results:The study group showed significantly higher rates of "poorly visualized" 4CV，LVOT，and 3VT than the control group（2.70% vs. 0.14%， P=0.005；36.49% vs. 4.76%， P<0.001；36.49% vs.2.46%， P<0.001）. The efficacies of combination 1（any view abnormal）and combination 2（any view "poorly visualized" or "abnormal"）were comparable，with AUCs of 0.86 and 0.85（ P=0.424）. The AUCs of combination 3（3VT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）and combination 4（4CV "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）were 0.88 and 0.86（ P=0.424），all significantly higher than combination 5（LVOT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"，AUC=0.84，all P<0.05）. Conclusions:"Poorly visualized" cardiac views in the first trimester demonstrate good diagnostic efficacy for CHD，particularly when 3VT or 4CV are affected，warranting heightened clinical vigilance for fetal cardiac anomalies.

Objective:To compare minimally invasive surgery with traditional open surgery, analyze the current application status of health economic evaluations in the treatment of digestive tract cancers, such as esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer by minimally invasive surgery and provide evidence for the rational selection of clinical treatment, alleviation of disease-related economic burdens, and rational allocation of healthcare resources.Methods:By using five databases, i.e. China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang data, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, and Embase, a database was established to retrieve all the papers about health economic studies of minimally invasive surgery for esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer published until December 31, 2023. Literature was analyzed by using software NoteExpress 3.8, and data were processed using Excel 2021. The quality of included papers was evaluated using the CHEERS 2022 checklist, and Meta-analysis was conducted by using software Stata 17.0.Results:A total of 10 919 relevant papers were retrieved, and 59 studies were included. Only 14 studies (23.7%) used standard health economic evaluation methods. Meta-analysis results revealed no significant differences in direct medical expenditure and total expenditure between minimally invasive surgery and open surgery. However, the expenditure for minimally invasive surgery exhibited a significant increase [mean difference ( MD)=5 973.12 yuan, P<0.001], while hospital stay and indirect expenditure significantly decreased ( MD: -4.85 days and -733.79 yuan, P<0.001). In China, for gastric cancer, the direct medical expenditure of endoscopic surgery was lower than that of open surgery ( MD=-33 000.00 yuan) with no significant difference ( P<0.001). In colorectal cancer cases, the direct medical and surgical expenditures for laparoscopic surgery were higher than those for open surgery ( MD: 4 277.94 yuan and 4 267.80 yuan, P<0.001), while the indirect and total medical expenditures decreased ( MD: -768.34 yuan and -159.10 yuan). Hospital stays in patients who had minimally invasive surgery for all three types of cancer were shorter than those who had open surgery ( P<0.001). Conclusions:In the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer, compared with open surgery, minimally invasive surgery shows higher expenditure, but has advantages, such as shorter hospital stay and lower indirect expenditure, and there were no significant differences in direct medical and total expenditures between the two approaches. When conducting health economic evaluation, factors such as postoperative complications, hospital stay, and patient's economic status should be considered for their impact on total medical expenditure. It is necessary to pay attention to the application of health economic evaluations in healthcare decision-making.

Objective:To analyze the spatiotemporal correlation between the surveillance data of influenza in students reported by medical institutions and school absenteeism due to illness, and evaluate the application of Bayesian Structural Time Series model (BSTS) in the prediction of school influenza epidemic.Methods:A total of 13 schools in Dapeng new district of Shenzhen were selected. The incidence data of influenza in schools in Shenzhen from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 were collected from China Disease Control and Prevention Information System and the illness related school absentence data during this period were collected from Shenzhen Student Health Surveillance System, and the spatiotemporal correlation between the data from two systems was analyzed and compared. BSTS was used to make long-term predictions of the monthly incidence of influenza in students in 2019 and short-term predictions of the weekly incidence of influenza in week 1-8 and week 45-52 of 2019 by using the data from two systems.Results:There was a temporal correlation between the data from China Disease Control and Prevention Information System and the data from Shenzhen Student Health Surveillance System ( r=0.93, P<0.001), and the lag of the former one was 1 day ( r=0.73, P<0.001). Influenza outbreaks were randomly distributed in different schools in Shenzhen, and there was no spatial correlation. The root mean square error ( RMSE) and mean absolute error ( MAE) were 0.35 and 0.28, respectively, in the long-term prediction, and the RMSE was 0.33 and 0.34, and the MAE was 0.26 and 0.28, respectively, in the short-term predictions of week 1-8 and week 45-52 of 2019, respectively, showing good prediction accuracy and fitting effect. Conclusion:By analyzing the data from China Disease Control and Prevention Information System and Shenzhen Student Health Surveillance System with BSTS, the dynamics of the school influenza epidemic can be accurately predicted, and effective technical support can be provided for the early warning and prevention and control of influenza epidemic.

Abelmoschi Corolla, the dried corolla of Abelmoschus manihot, has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-fibrosis activities. Its chemical constituents mainly include flavonoids, organic acids, steroids, and polysaccharides. This study reviewed the research progress in the chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of Abelmoschi Corolla in recent 20 years. According to the concept of quality marker(Q-marker), the Q-markers of Abelmoschi Corolla were predicted from plant phylogeny, chemical constituent specificity, traditional efficacy, chemical constituent measurability, and absorbed constituents. The primary Q-markers for Abelmoschi Corolla were anticipated to include quercetin-3'-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, gossypetin-8-O-β-D-glucuronide, isoquercetin, myricetin,quercetin, and hyperoside, with the aim of providing reference data for improving the quality evaluation system of Abelmoschi Corolla.
Abelmoschus/chemistry* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Flowers/chemistry* ; Humans ; Animals ; Quality Control ; Flavonoids/chemistry*

Facing the requirements of promoting the healthy China initiative and improving people's health, the "bone health program" was proposed in 2024. In-depth development of a traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prevention and control system is of strategic significance to the implementation of the "bone health program". Focusing on osteoporosis(OP), a representative disease affecting people's bone health, this paper concludes that accelerating the research on the prevention and control of OP by TCM is conducive to enhancing the knowledge and awareness of OP among the public, and it is beneficial to revealing the evolutionary pattern of OP and improving the understanding and management of this disease. Additionally, it can provide an overall framework for and strengthen the systematicity and completeness of the research on the prevention and treatment of OP by TCM. Meanwhile, it can help to explore new research paradigms and optimize the existing research model, so as to promote innovative breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of bone health-related diseases by TCM. Under the overall layout of the "bone health program", importance should be attached to the early prevention and the innovation of very early diagnosis and intervention of OP. Emphasis should be put on the discovery of the target network of disease and treatment mechanism for revealing the core pathogenesis of OP and the therapeutic mechanism of TCM. In addition to local lesions of the bone and its clinical outcomes, attention should be paid to the development of multiple metabolic complications. The fusion of advanced interdisciplinary technologies should be promoted for OP and its complications, and thus a research and development system based on clinical application scenarios and driven by big data can be built. The measures above will facilitate the progress in the prevention and treatment of OP and other bone diseases by TCM and provide new momentum for enriching and deepening the research connotation of the "bone health program".
Osteoporosis/therapy* ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; China ; Bone and Bones/drug effects*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of different previous treatments on the efficacy of flumatinib in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). METHODS: The clinical data of 69 patients with CML treated with flumatinib in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from 2019 to 2024 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into a first-line flumatinib group and a first-line non-flumatinib group according to whether flumatinib was used as first-line treatment. The molecular response (MR) at 3, 6 and 12 months of treatment was compared between the two groups to evaluate the early efficacy. The first-line non-flumatinib group was further divided into imatinib group, nilotinib group, and dasatinib group according to the previous first-line drugs used. The efficacy data of these three groups at 3, 6 and 12 months after switching to flumatinib were collected, and the MR was evaluated to compare efficacy differences. RESULTS: The rate of early molecular response (EMR) in the first-line flumatinib group was significantly higher than that in the first-line non-flumatinib group (P < 0.05). At 6 months and 12 months of treatment, the proportion of patients achieving MR 4.5 in the first-line flumatinib group was significantly higher than that in the first-line non-flumatinib group (P < 0.05). Compared with the imatinib and nilotinib groups, the previous dasatinib group showed a significantly higher proportion of patients achieving MR 5.0 at 3, 6, and 12 months after switching to flumatinib (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Compared with the previous treatment with other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), initial use of flumatinib at diagnosis enable patients to achieve deeper molecular remission more rapidly. Compared with previous use of imatinib or nilotinib, previous use of dasatinib is associated with deeper molecular remission after switching to flumatinib.
Humans ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive/drug therapy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Imatinib Mesylate/therapeutic use* ; Dasatinib/therapeutic use* ; Treatment Outcome ; Pyrimidines/therapeutic use* ; Female ; Male ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Middle Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use*

BACKGROUND: The use of inserted sham acupuncture as a placebo in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is controversial, because it may produce specific effects that cause an underestimation of the effect of acupuncture treatment. OBJECTIVE: This systematic survey investigates the magnitude of insert-specific effects of sham acupuncture and whether they affect the estimation of acupuncture treatment effects. SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched to identify acupuncture RCTs from their inception until December 2022. INCLUSION CRITERIA: RCTs that evaluated the effects of acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture and no treatment. DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS: The total effect measured for an acupuncture treatment group in RCTs were divided into three components, including the natural history and/or regression to the mean effect (controlled for no-treatment group), the placebo effect, and the specific effect of acupuncture. The first two constituted the contextual effect of acupuncture, which is mimicked by a sham acupuncture treatment group. The proportion of acupuncture total effect size was considered to be 1. The proportion of natural history and/or regression to the mean effect (PNE) and proportional contextual effect (PCE) of included RCTs were pooled using meta-analyses with a random-effect model. The proportion of acupuncture placebo effect was the difference between PCE and PNE in RCTs with non-inserted sham acupuncture. The proportion of insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture (PIES) was obtained by subtracting the proportion of acupuncture placebo effect and PNE from PCE in RCTs with inserted sham acupuncture. The impact of PIES on the estimation of acupuncture's treatment effect was evaluated by quantifying the percentage of RCTs that the effect of outcome changed from no statistical difference to statistical difference after removing PIES in the included studies, and the impact of PIES was externally validated in other acupuncture RCTs with an inserted sham acupuncture group that were not used to calculate PIES. RESULTS: This analysis included 32 studies with 5492 patients. The overall PNE was 0.335 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.255-0.415) and the PCE of acupuncture was 0.639 (95% CI, 0.567-0.710) of acupuncture's total effect. The proportional contribution of the placebo effect to acupuncture's total effect was 0.191, and the PIES was 0.189. When we modeled the exclusion of the insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture, the acupuncture treatment effect changed from no difference to a significant difference in 45.45% of the included RCTs, and in 40.91% of the external validated RCTs. CONCLUSION The insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture in RCTs represents 18.90% of acupuncture's total effect and significantly affects the evaluation of the acupuncture treatment effect. More than 40% of RCTs that used inserted sham acupuncture would draw different conclusions if the PIES had been controlled for. Considering the impact of the insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture, caution should be taken when using inserted sham acupuncture placebos in RCTs. Please cite this article as: Luo XC, Liu JL, Yao MH, Chen YM, Fan AY, Liang FR, Zhao JP, Zhao L, Zhou X, Zhong XY, Yang JH, Li B, Zhang Y, Sun X, Li L. Specific effect of inserted sham acupuncture and its impact on the estimation of acupuncture treatment effect in randomized controlled trials: A systematic survey. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(6):630-640.
Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; Humans ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Placebo Effect ; Placebos ; Treatment Outcome