ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Huaban Jiedu Formulation （化斑解毒方， HJF） in treating psoriasis vulgaris with blood-heat syndrome. MethodsA randomized， double-blind， placebo-controlled study was conducted with 60 patients diagnosed with psoriasis vulgaris of blood-heat syndrome. Patients were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group， with 30 cases in each. The treatment group received HJF granules orally， one dose a day， combined with topical Qingshi Zhiyang Ointment （青石止痒软膏）， while the control group received placebo granules， one dose a day， combined with the same topical ointment. Both groups were topically treated twice daily of 28 days treatment cours. Psoriasis area and severity index （PASI）， visual analogue scale for pruritus （VAS）， traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndrome scores， dermatology life quality index （DLQI）， and psoriasis life stress inventory （PLSI） were assessed before treatment and on day 14 and day 28. Response rates for PASI 50 （≥50% reduction） and PASI 75 （≥75% reduction）， as well as overall clinical efficacy， were compared between groups. Serum levels of interleukin-6 （IL-6） and interleukin-17 （IL-17） were measured before and after 28 days of treatment. Adverse reactions during treatment were recorded. ResultsAfter 28 days of treatment， both groups showed significant reductions in PASI total score， lesion area score， erythema， scaling， and infiltration scores， pruritus VAS score， TCM syndrome score， DLQI， PLSI， and serum IL-6 and IL-17 levels （P＜0.05）. Compared to the control group， the treatment group had significantly greater improvements in PASI total score and erythema score， TCM syndrome score， serum IL-6 and IL-17 levels， and PASI 50 response rate after 28 days （P＜0.05）. Between-group comparisons of score differences before and after 28-day treatment revealed that the treatment group showed significantly better improvements in PASI total， lesion area score， erythema score， TCM syndrome score， DLQI， PLSI， and inflammatory markers （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The total effective rate on day 14 and day 28 was 40.00% （12/30） and 83.33% （25/30） in the treatment group， versus 6.90% （2/29） and 41.38% （12/29） in the control group， respectively. The clinical efficacy in the treatment group was significantly superior to that in the control group （P＜0.05）. Mild gastric discomfort occurred in 3 patients in the treatment group and 1 in the control group. ConclusionHJF can effectively improve skin lesions and TCM symptoms relieve pruritus， enhance quality of life， and reduce inflammatory markers IL-6 and IL-17， in patients with blood-heat syndrome of psoriasis vulgaris， with a good safety profile.

Hepatitis B virus （HBV） is considered a “metabolic virus” that can influence a variety of metabolic processes. There is still a lack of definite conclusion on the association between chronic HBV infection and the various types of metabolic dysfunction， and little is known about the mechanism of the association of chronic HBV infection with the diseases characterized by metabolic disorder， such as metabolic syndrome， diabetes， and metabolic associated fatty liver disease. Currently it is believed that hepatitis B x gene （HBx）， derived from HBV genome， might play an important role in mediating systemic metabolic alterations after HBV infection， and HBx influences the metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids and causes metabolic dysfunction by retgulating the expression profiles of the key proteins such as PPARγ， C/EBPα， SREBP， and FATP2. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease （NAFLD） is the most severe manifestation of metabolic dysfunction in the liver， and since both NAFLD and HBV infection can cause liver injury， the research on the interaction between them has attracted more and more attention， with controversies requiring further exploration. Therefore， this article elaborates on the research advances in chronic HBV infection and metabolic dysfunction， so as to provide ideas for subsequent studies.

In order to standardize the clinical diagnosis and treatment of upper airway cough syndrome (UACS) for children in China, Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine initiated the development of this Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines for Children with Upper Airway cough Syndrome based on evidence-based medical evidence. This guideline will process registration, write a plan, and develop relevant processes and writing norms, develop and publish official documents. This plan mainly introduces the scope of the guidelines, the purpose and significance, the composition of the guidelines working group, the management of conflicts of interest, the collection, selection and determination of clinical problems, the retrieval, screening and rating of evidence, and the consensus of recommendations. Registration information: This study has been registered in the international practice guidelines registry platform with the registration code of PREPARE-2023CN087.

Objective:To explore the optimal pulse oxygen saturation (SpO 2) range during hospitalization for patients with sepsis. Methods:A case-control study design was employed. Demographic information, vital signs, comorbidities, laboratory parameters, critical illness scores, clinical treatment information, and clinical outcomes of sepsis patients were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-Ⅳ (MIMIC-Ⅳ). A generalized additive model (GAM) combined with a Loess smoothing function was employed to analyze and visualize the nonlinear relationship between SpO 2 levels during hospitalization and in-hospital all-cause mortality. The optimal range of SpO 2 was determined, and Logistic regression model along with Kaplan-Meier curve were utilized to validate the association between the determined range of SpO 2 and in-hospital all-cause mortality. Results:A total of 5?937 patients met the inclusion criteria, among whom 1?191 (20.1%) died during hospitalization. GAM analysis revealed a nonlinear and U-shaped relationship between SpO 2 levels and in-hospital all-cause mortality among sepsis patients during hospitalization. Multivariable Logistic regression analysis further confirmed that patients with SpO 2 levels between 0.96 and 0.98 during hospitalization had a decreased mortality compared to those with SpO 2 < 0.96 [hypoxia group; odds ratio ( OR) = 2.659, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was 2.190-3.229, P < 0.001] and SpO 2 > 0.98 (hyperoxia group; OR = 1.594, 95% CI was 1.337-1.900, P < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that patients with SpO 2 between 0.96 and 0.98 during hospitalization had a higher probability of survival than those patient with SpO 2 < 0.96 and SpO 2 > 0.98 (Log-Rank test: χ2 = 113.400, P < 0.001). Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that, with the exception of subgroups with smaller sample sizes, across the strata of age, gender, body mass index (BMI), admission type, race, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, respiratory rate, body temperature, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, chronic liver disease, diabetes mellitus, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), simplified acute physiology score Ⅱ (SAPSⅡ), systemic inflammatory response syndrome score (SIRS), and Glasgow coma score (GCS), the mortality of patients with SpO 2 between 0.96 and 0.98 was significantly lower than those of patients with SpO 2 < 0.96 and SpO 2 > 0.98. Conclusions:During hospitalization, the level of SpO 2 among sepsis patients exhibits a U-shaped relationship with in-hospital all-cause mortality, indicating that heightened and diminished oxygen levels are both associated with increased mortality risk. The optimal SpO 2 range is determined to be between 0.96 and 0.98.

BACKGROUND: The clinical importance of hypokalemia is likely underrecognized in Chinese dialysis patients, and whether its clinical effect was mediated by serum albumin is not fully elucidated. This study aimed to explore the association between serum potassium and mortality in dialysis patients of a Chinese nationwide multicenter cohort, taking albumin as a consideration. METHODS: This was a prospective nation-wide multicenter cohort study. Restricted cubic splines were used to test the linearity of serum potassium and relationships with all-cause (AC) and cardiovascular (CV) mortality and a subsequent two-line piecewise linear model was fitted to approach the nadir. A mediation analysis was performed to examine relations of albumin to potassium and mortalities. RESULTS: A total of 10,027 patients were included, of whom 6605 were peritoneal dialysis and 3422 were hemodialysis patients. In the overall population, the mean age was 51.7 ± 14.8 years, 55.3%(5546/10,027) were male, and the median dialysis vintage was 13.60 (4.70, 39.70) months. Baseline serum potassium was 4.30 ± 0.88 mmol/L. After a median follow-up period of 26.87 (14.77, 41.50) months, a U-shape was found between potassium and mortality, and a marked increase in risk at lower potassium but a moderate elevation in risk at higher potassium were observed. The nadir for AC mortality risk was estimated from piecewise linear models to be a potassium concentration of 4.0 mmol/L. Interestingly, the significance of the association between potassium and mortality was attenuated when albumin was introduced into the extended adjusted model. A subsequent significant mediation by albumin for potassium and AC and CV mortalities were found ( P < 0.001 for both), indicating that hypokalemia led to higher mortality mediated by low serum albumin, which was a surrogate of poor nutritional status and inflammation. CONCLUSIONS Associations between potassium and mortalities were U-shaped in the overall population. The nadir for AC mortality risk was at a potassium of 4.0 mmol/L. Serum albumin mediated the association between potassium and AC and CV mortalities.
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; East Asian People ; Hypokalemia/etiology* ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/mortality* ; Potassium/blood* ; Prospective Studies ; Renal Dialysis ; Serum Albumin/analysis*

Objective:To investigate the value of monitoring on serum silent information regulator-related enzyme 3 (SIRT3), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).Methods:Eighty patients with AIS who treatment in Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County People′s Hospital from May 2019 to April 2022 were selected retrospectively as the observation group, and 60 healthy volunteers who underwent physical examination during the same period were selected as the normal control group. The levels of serum SIRT3, GLP-1, and ANGPTL4 between the two groups were compared. The neurological deficit degree of AIS patients was evaluated by National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS) and the correlation of SIRT3, GLP-1 and ANGPTL4 with neurological deficit degree were analyzed. The levels of serum SIRT3, GLP-1 and ANGPTL4 before and after treatment and their difference value were compared between different clinical outcome of AIS patients, the risk factors for poor clinical outcome of AIS patients were analyzed by Logistic regression analysis, the value of prediction was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results:The level of serum GLP-1 in the observation group was lower than that in the normal control group: (50.37 ± 5.69) nmol/L vs. (34.89 ± 4.26) nmol/L; and the levels of serum SIRT3 and ANGPTL4 in the observation group were higher than those in the normal control group: (50.37 ± 5.69) ng/L vs. (34.89 ± 4.26) ng/L, (15.07 ± 3.12) μg/L vs. (11.15 ± 2.63) μg/L, there were statistical differences ( P<0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that the levels of serum SIRT3 and ANGPTL4 were positively correlated with the degree of neurological impairment in AIS patients( r = 0.631, 0.776, P<0.05), and the level of serum GLP-1 was negatively correlated with the degree of neurological impairment in AIS patients ( r = - 0.693, P<0.05). After treatment, 66 patients obtained good clinical outcome, the good outcome rate was 82.50%(66/80). The levels of serum SIRT3 and ANGPTL4 in the poor clinical outcome patients were higher than those in the good clinical outcome patients: (41.33 ± 4.74) ng/L vs. (37.82 ± 4.05) ng/L, (12.98 ± 2.17) μg/L vs. (11.69 ± 2.06) μg/L; the level of serum GLP-1 in the poor clinical outcome patients was lower than that in the good clinical outcome patients: (592.33 ± 98.44) nmol/L vs. (709.41 ± 125.31) nmol/L; the difference value of SIRT3, GLP-1 and ANGPTL4 before and after treatment in the poor clinical outcome patients were lower than those in the good clinical outcome patients: (10.22 ± 2.05) ng/L vs. (12.31 ± 2.94) ng/L, (268.21 ± 70.12) nmol/L vs. (379.92 ± 85.33) nmol/L, (2.18 ± 0.65) μg/L vs. (3.36 ± 0.94) μg/L, there were statistical differences ( P<0.05). The results of Logistic regression analysis showed that differences value of SIRT3, GLP-1 and ANGPTL4 before and after treatment were all independent influencing factors of poor clinical outcome in patients with AIS ( P<0.05). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of differences value of SIRT3, GLP-1 and ANGPTL4 before and after treatment in predicting poor clinical outcome were 0.701, 0.758 and 0.844, respectively, and had certain predictive value, the AUC of joint evaluation was the largest (0.912). Conclusions:The levels of serum SIRT3 and ANGPTL4 in patients with AIS are increased, and the level of serum GLP-1 is decreased, and they are related to the degree of neurological deficit. Clinical monitoring of their level changes is helpful for clinical evaluation of the clinical outcome of patients with AIS.

Objective:To explore the predictive value of systemic immune inflammation index (SII) for the risk of hospital death in critically ill patients.Methods:The basic information and clinical data of critically ill patients were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database-Ⅳ (MIMIC-IV) database, including demographic data, vital signs, blood routine, Logistic organ dysfunction score (Lods), Oxford acute severity of illness score (Oasis), simplified acute physiology score (Saps-Ⅱ), acute physiology score Ⅲ (APS-Ⅲ), sequential organ failure score (SOFA) and outcome. The main outcome was hospital death, and the secondary outcomes were length of hospital stay, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), invasive ventilation and 1-year mortality. Patients were divided into two groups according to in-hospital death, and the differences between the groups were compared. According to the SII tripartite for inter-group comparison, the patients were further divided into three groups for comparison, and Logistic regression model was used to analyze the odd ratio ( OR) of the three groups. Results:A total of 32 450 critically ill patients were included in the study, of which 3765 died in hospital, with a mortality rate of 11.6%. ① Compared with the survival group, the SII in the death group were significantly higher ( P < 0.05). ② The mortality for the SII tripartite grouping (<817; 817~2 151; >2 151) were 8.4%, 10.2% and 16.3%, respectively, and the differences between groups were statistically significant. ③ Further, Logistic regression model analysis showed that the risk of death increased gradually with the increase of groups (the first group was the reference group, OR of the second group was 1.38, 95% CI 1.24-1.54, and OR of the third group was 2.03, 95% CI 1.83-2.24 ( P < 0.05). Conclusions:SII has a certain value in predicting hospital death in critically ill patients. It is easy to obtain and can be used for risk stratification of critically ill patients.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of composite transplantation of artificial dermis and autologous razor-thin graft combined with vacuum sealing drainage in the repair of joint scar after burn.Methods:The clinical data of patients with scar contracture deformity or scar ulcer after extensive burn admitted to the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery of No. 926 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Force of PLA from January 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients received one-stage contracture scar excision and release or scar ulcer debridement, Lando ?artificial dermis transplantation combined with vacuum sealing drainage, removal of the silicone membrane after complete vascularization of the wound, and secondary transplantation of autologous razor-thin graft. The survival and long-term appearance of skin graft, formation of scar and function recovery of joint were observed. Results:A total of 32 patients were included, including 24 males and 8 females, aged from 18 to 45 years, with an average age of 33 years. Scars were found in 4 cases of the metacarpophalangeal joint, 4 cases of the wrist joint, 10 cases of the elbow joint, and 14 cases of the knee joint and popliteal fossa. One patient underwent surgery to repair bilateral knee joint scar ulcers simultaneously, resulting in a total of 33 surgical sites. Among them, there were 23 sites of scar contracture deformities, 5 sites of scar ulcers, and 5 sites of scar contracture deformities with scar ulcers. After 2 weeks of artificial dermis coverage, the negative pressure device was removed, and the artificial dermis stent vascularization was good in 32 patients (33 surgical sites). After autologous skin graft transplantation, the survival rate was 100% (33/33). Postoperative follow-up for 3 to 12 months showed that there was no ulceration in the skin graft area, the skin color was close to normal, and there were no obvious scar contractures or hyperplasia. The joint function was satisfactory.Conclusion:The composite transplantation of artificial dermis and autologous razor-thin graft combined with vacuum sealing drainage is good to repair scar contracture or scar ulcer of joint after burn, the skin color and texture after operation, and the recovery of joint function is satisfactory.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of composite transplantation of artificial dermis and autologous razor-thin graft combined with vacuum sealing drainage in the repair of joint scar after burn.Methods:The clinical data of patients with scar contracture deformity or scar ulcer after extensive burn admitted to the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery of No. 926 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Force of PLA from January 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients received one-stage contracture scar excision and release or scar ulcer debridement, Lando ?artificial dermis transplantation combined with vacuum sealing drainage, removal of the silicone membrane after complete vascularization of the wound, and secondary transplantation of autologous razor-thin graft. The survival and long-term appearance of skin graft, formation of scar and function recovery of joint were observed. Results:A total of 32 patients were included, including 24 males and 8 females, aged from 18 to 45 years, with an average age of 33 years. Scars were found in 4 cases of the metacarpophalangeal joint, 4 cases of the wrist joint, 10 cases of the elbow joint, and 14 cases of the knee joint and popliteal fossa. One patient underwent surgery to repair bilateral knee joint scar ulcers simultaneously, resulting in a total of 33 surgical sites. Among them, there were 23 sites of scar contracture deformities, 5 sites of scar ulcers, and 5 sites of scar contracture deformities with scar ulcers. After 2 weeks of artificial dermis coverage, the negative pressure device was removed, and the artificial dermis stent vascularization was good in 32 patients (33 surgical sites). After autologous skin graft transplantation, the survival rate was 100% (33/33). Postoperative follow-up for 3 to 12 months showed that there was no ulceration in the skin graft area, the skin color was close to normal, and there were no obvious scar contractures or hyperplasia. The joint function was satisfactory.Conclusion:The composite transplantation of artificial dermis and autologous razor-thin graft combined with vacuum sealing drainage is good to repair scar contracture or scar ulcer of joint after burn, the skin color and texture after operation, and the recovery of joint function is satisfactory.

Pruritus is one of the common symptoms after burn injury, which seriously affects the wound healing and quality of life of burn patients, but its diagnosis and treatment are often neglected. The pathophysiological mechanism of post-burn pruritus has not been elucidated, and it is currently believed that post-burn pruritus is caused by the neuropathic factors. In addition, there is no consensus on the standard evaluation methods and treatment protocols for post-burn pruritus. This paper reviewed the research advances on the pathophysiological mechanism, disease evaluation, and treatment of post-burn pruritus.