The Expert Consensus on Clinical Application of Qinbaohong Zhike Oral Liquid in Treatment of Acute Bronchitis and Acute Attack of Chronic Bronchitis （GS/CACM 337-2023） was released by the China Association of Chinese Medicine on December 13^th， 2023. This expert consensus was developed by experts in methodology， pharmacy， and Chinese medicine in strict accordance with the development requirements of the China Association of Chinese Medicine （CACM） and based on the latest medical evidence and the clinical medication experience of well-known experts in the fields of respiratory medicine （pulmonary diseases） and pediatrics. This expert consensus defines the application of Qinbaohong Zhike oral liquid in the treatment of cough and excessive sputum caused by phlegm-heat obstructing lung， acute bronchitis， and acute attack of chronic bronchitis from the aspects of applicable populations， efficacy evaluation， usage， dosage， drug combination， and safety. It is expected to guide the rational drug use in medical and health institutions， give full play to the unique value of Qinbaohong Zhike oral liquid， and vigorously promote the inheritance and innovation of Chinese patent medicines.

ObjectiveTo investigate the potential mechanism of action of the Qufeng Tongqiao Cough-relieving Decoction （祛风通窍止咳方， QTCD） in the treatment of upper airway cough syndrome （UACS）. MethodsTwenty-four guinea pigs were randomly divided into blank group， model group， traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） group， and inhibitor group， with six guinea pigs in each group. Except for the blank group， guinea pigs were sensitized with ovalbumin and aluminum hydroxide via intraperitoneal injection， followed by ovalbumin nasal drops combined with smoke exposure to establish the UACS model. After modeling， the TCM group was administered QTCD 0.9 g/（100 g·d） by gavage， the inhibitor group received the transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor 4 （TRPV4） inhibitor GSK2193874 1 mmol/L， 5 min by nebulisation， and the blank group and model group were given 2 ml/（100 g·d） normal saline by gavage once daily. After 7 days of treatment， a cough provocation test was performed using 0.4 mol/L citric acid. The levels of IgE in serum and inflammatory cytokines， including interleukin-6 （IL-6）， interleukin-8 （IL-8） in serum， bronchoalveolar lavage fluid （BALF）， and nasal lavage fluid （NLF） were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Histopathological changes in lung and nasal mucosal tissues were observed by hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the protein levels of TRPV4， substance P （SP）， and calcitonin gene-related peptide （CGRP） in lung and nasal mucosal tissues. Real-time polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR） was used to detect the mRNA expression of TRPV4， SP， and CGRP in lung tissues. ResultsHE staining showed significant structural damage and infiltration of inflammatory cells in the lung and nasal mucosal tissues in the model group， while the TCM group and inhibitor group showed improved pathological changes. Compared with the blank group， the model group showed increased cough frequency， serum IgE level， and IL-6 and IL-8 levels in serum， BALF， and NLF. The protein levels of TRPV4， SP， and CGRP in lung and nasal mucosal tissues and their mRNA expression were elevated （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. Compared with the model group， the TCM group and inhibitor group showed reduced cough frequency， serum IgE level， and TRPV4 and SP mRNA expression in lung tissues. The TCM group showed reduced IL-6 and IL-8 levels in serum， BALF， and NLF， and reduced TRPV4 and CGRP protein levels in lung and nasal mucosal tissues. The inhibitor group showed reduced IL-6 and IL-8 levels in serum， BALF， and NLF， reduced IL-6 in BALF， reduced IL-8 in NLF， and decreased TRPV4， SP， and CGRP protein levels in lung tissues and SP and CGRP protein levels in nasal mucosal tissues （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. Compared with the TCM group， the inhibitor group had increased serum IgE， IL-6， and IL-8 levels， increased IL-6 level in BALF， and increased IL-8 levle in NLF， but decreased SP protein level in lung tissues and increased TRPV4 and SP mRNA expression in lung tissues （P＜0.01）. ConclusionQTCD effectively reduces cough frequency in the UACS guinea pig model. Its mechanism may involve inhibiting the activation of the TRPV4 pathway， improving airway neurogenic inflammation， alleviating inflammatory responses， and reducing cough hypersensitivity.

ObjectiveTo explore the construction of a machine learning model for the diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes in chronic cough and the optimization of this model using the Voting ensemble algorithm. MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted using clinical data from 921 patients with chronic cough treated at the Respiratory Department of Dongfang Hospital， Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. After standardized processing， 84 clinical features were extracted to determine TCM syndrome types. A specialized dataset for TCM syndrome diagnosis in chronic cough was formed by selecting syndrome types with more than 50 cases. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique （SMOTE） was employed to balance the dataset. Four base models， logistic regression （LR）， decision tree （dt）， multilayer perceptron （MLP）， and Bagging， were constructed and integrated using a hard voting strategy to form a Voting ensemble model. Model performance was evaluated using accuracy， recall， precision， F1-score， receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve， area under the curve （AUC）， and confusion matrix. ResultsAmong the 921 cases， six syndrome types had over 50 cases each， phlegm-heat obstructing the lung （294 cases）， wind pathogen latent in the lung （103 cases）， cold-phlegm obstructing the lung （102 cases）， damp-heat stagnating in the lung （64 cases）， lung yang deficiency （54 cases）， and phlegm-damp obstructing the lung （53 cases）， yielding a total of 670 cases in the specialized dataset. High-frequency symptoms among these patients included cough， expectoration， odor-induced cough， throat itchiness， itch-induced cough， and cough triggered by cold wind. Among the four base models， the MLP model showed the best diagnostic performance （test accuracy： 0.9104； AUC： 0.9828）. Compared with the base models， the Voting ensemble model achieved superior performance with an accuracy of 0.9289 on the training set and 0.9253 on the test set， showing a minimal overfitting gap of 0.0036. It also achieved the highest AUC （0.9836） in the test set， outperforming all base models. The model exhi-bited especially strong diagnostic performance for damp-heat stagnating in the lung （AUC： 0.9984） and wind pathogen latent in the lung （AUC： 0.9970）. ConclusionThe Voting ensemble algorithm effectively integrates the strengths of multiple machine learning models， resulting in an optimized diagnostic model for TCM syndromes in chronic cough with high accuracy and enhanced generalization ability.

Objective:To master the epidemic trend of human brucellosis in Qinghai Province, so as to provide basis for scientific prevention and control of the disease.Methods:In 2019 and 2020, at the national and provincial brucellosis monitoring sites in Qinghai Province, a total of 18 counties (cities and districts, hereinafter referred to as counties), no less than 400 serum samples were sampled every year for brucellosis Rose-Bengal plate agglutination test (RBPT) and serum tube agglutination test (SAT), which would be tested and judged according to the criteria of "Diagnosis for Brucellosis" (WS 269-2019).Results:In 2019, a total of 1 612 people were monitored in national brucellosis monitoring sites, 93 were RBPT positive, 54 were SAT positive, 54 were diagnosed, and the prevalence rate was 3.35% (54/1 612). In 2020, 1 677 people were monitored in national brucellosis monitoring sites, 151 were RBPT positive, 80 were SAT positive, 80 were diagnosed, and the prevalence rate was 4.77% (80/1 677). There were significant differences in RBPT positive rate, SAT positive rate and prevalence rate among national monitoring sites between the two years (χ 2 = 12.52, 4.24, 4.24, P < 0.05). In 2019, a total of 6 043 people were monitored in provincial brucellosis monitoring sites, 128 were RBPT positive, 91 were SAT positive, 87 were diagnosed, and the prevalence rate was 1.44% (87/6 043). In 2020, 5 664 people were monitored, 108 were RBPT positive, 59 were SAT positive, 52 were diagnosed, and the prevalence rate was 0.92% (52/5 664). There was no significant difference in RBPT positive rate among provincial monitoring sites between the two years (χ 2 = 0.66, P = 0.416), and the differences in SAT positive rate and prevalence rate were statistically significant among provincial monitoring sites between the two years (χ 2 = 4.98, 14.57, P < 0.05). Conclusion:In 2019 and 2020, there are human brucellosis in national and provincial brucellosis monitoring sites in Qinghai Province.

Objective:To investigate the expression and clinical significance of peptide/histidine transporter solute carrier family 15 member 4 (SLC15A4) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods:Fifty-five patients with SLE were divided into active SLE group and stable SLE group according to SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) score, and 13 healthy volunteers were used as controls. The expression of SLC15A4 in PBMCs were detected by Western blot method. Moreover, the correlation between the expression of SLC15A4 and clinical and laboratory parameters of SLE patients were analyzed. The expression of SLC15a4 in the three groups was compared based on one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the correlation between SLC15A4 expression level and clinical indicators was analyzed by Pearson correlation.Results:The expression levels of SLC15A4 in active SLE group, stable SLE group and healthy control group were (0.96±0.19), (0.88±0.14), (0.78±0.24), respectively. The expression level of SLC15A4 in SLE with active disease was higher than that in healthy controls ( F=4.47, P=0.015). In addition, the expression of SLC15A4 in PBMCs of SLE patients was positively correlated with the quantity of anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) antibody, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) ( r=0.29, P=0.031; r=0.36, P=0.007; r=0.32, P=0.017, respectively). However, the expression of SLC15A4 in PBMCs had no significant correlation with 24-h urinary protein ( r=0.45, P=0.127) and C3 ( r=0.20, P=0.133). Conclusion:SLC15A4 is involved in the pathogenesis of SLE and its expression in PBMCs of SLE patients can be used as an index to evaluate disease activity.

Objective:To analyze the results of serum erythropoietin (EPO) in adults patients with Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD) in Qinghai Province.Methods:According to the "Diagnosis of Kaschin-Beck Disease" (WS/T 207-2010), by using clinical examination and X-ray, adults over 20 years old in KBD areas of Xinghai County and Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, were divided into KBD case group ( n = 109) and internal control group ( n = 95) in July 2019. At the same time, healthy people were selected as external control group ( n = 90) in Xunhua County. Then 2 ml fasting cubital venous blood was collected from the target population to separate serum. The serum EPO level was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results:There was no significant difference in age and sex ratio among the 3 groups ( F = 0.73, P = 0.484; χ 2 = 1.03, P = 0.611). There was significant difference in serum EPO levels among the 3 groups [KBD case, internal and external control groups: (30.74 ± 26.23), (19.73 ± 11.53) and (10.83 ± 4.48) U/L, F = 26.51, P < 0.001]. Multiple comparisons showed that there were statistically significant differences in serum EPO levels between KBD case group and the internal and external control groups ( P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the internal and external control groups ( P > 0.05). Conclusions:The serum EPO level in adult KBD patients in Qinghai Province is increased significantly.

Objective:To evaluate the safety, efficacy and long-term survival of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for colorectal precancerous lesions and early cancer in the elderly over 80 years old.Methods:Clinical data of colorectal precancerous lesions and early cancer treated with ESD from January 2007 to December 2014 at Endoscopy Center of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 721 patients with 778 lesions were included in this study. These patients were stratified by age: the super-elderly group (≥80 years old, 55 patients, 7.6%) and the non-super-elderly group (<80 years old, 666 patients, 92.4%). The outcomes of ESD, complication incidences, pathological characteristics, and long-term survival were compared between the two groups.Results:Except that the incidence of chronic concomitant diseases in the super-elderly group was significantly higher than that in the non-super-elderly group [54.5% (30/55) VS 31.5% (210/666), P<0.001], other baseline characteristics were not significantly different ( P>0.05). There were no significant differences in the complete resection rate [93.1%(54/58) VS 95.3%(686/720)], the R0 resection rate [89.7% (52/58) VS 93.2% (671/720)], the curative resection rate [84.5% (49/58) VS 90.3% (650/720)], the complication incidence [5.5% (3/55) VS 2.7%(18/666)], or the median hospitalization (2.98 days VS 2.54 days) between the two groups (all P>0.05). The three-year overall survival rates of the super-elderly group and non-super-elderly group were 95.8% and 98.0%, respectively, and the five-year overall survival rates were 85.1% and 97.4%, respectively. Conclusion:Colorectal ESD is safe and effective for elderly patients (age ≥80 years old) despite a significantly higher incidence of chronic concomitant diseases than that in the non-super-elderly patients.

Objective:To understand the changes of serum interleukin (IL)-2 and IL-6 in adult patients with Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) in Qinghai Plateau, and to provide scientific basis for scientific prevention and treatment of plateau KBD.Methods:According to the "Diagnosis of Kashin-Beck Disease" (WS/T 207-2010), adult KBD patients and healthy people over 18 years old were selected as KBD group and control group, respectively, in KBD disease areas of Xinghai County and Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Fasting cubital venous blood was collected from the people of two groups, and the levels of serum IL-2 and IL-6 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results:A total of 193 people were surveyed, including 114 people in KBD group and 79 people in control group. There was no significant difference in age and sex ratio between the two groups ( t = 0.204, χ 2 = 2.547, P > 0.05). The serum IL-2 and IL-6 levels of the KBD group were (572.21 ± 172.92), (42.35 ± 15.86) pg/ml, respectively; compared with the control group [(511.28 ± 173.22), (51.96 ± 17.18) pg/ml], the differences were statistically significant ( t = 2.404, 3.999, P < 0.05). Conclusion:The serum IL-2 level is increased and IL-6 level is decreased in adult KBD patients in Qinghai Plateau, both of which may be involved in the inflammatory reaction of adult KBD.

Objective:To explore the necessity and safety of selective endoscopy to detect gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Methods:A retrospective cohort study was carried out to analyze the clinical data of selective endoscopy performed at the Endoscopic Center, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University from February 20 to March 6, 2020. Clinical data included epidemiological questionnaire, chief complaints, endoscopic findings and biopsy pathology results, etc. All medical staff had blood test for IgM/IgG antibodies of COVID-19. Patients and their families were followed up by phone to determine whether they were infected with COVID-19. Meanwhile, the clinical data of selective endoscopy during the same period from February 20 to March 6, 2019 were collected as the control group to compare the overall results of endoscopy examinations during the epidemic and the detection rate of GI malignancy.Results:A total of 911 patients underwent endoscopy in the epidemic period group, and a total of 5746 cases in the control group, which was 6.3 times over the epidemic period group. In the epidemic period group, 544 cases received gastroscopy and 367 cases received colonoscopy, while 3433 cases received gastroscopy and 2313 cases received colonoscopy in the control group, which were both 6.3 times of epidemic period group. Gastroscopy revealed that 39 patients (7.2%) were diagnosed with upper GI malignancies in the epidemic period group and 77 patients (2.2%) in the control group with significant difference (χ 2=40.243, P<0.001). The detection rate of gastric cancer in these two groups was 3.3% ( n=18) and 1.7% ( n=59) respectively with significant difference (χ 2=6.254, P=0.012). The detection rate of esophageal cancer was 3.7% ( n=20) and 0.5% ( n=18) respectively with significant difference (χ 2=49.303, P<0.001). Colonoscopy revealed that colorectal cancer was found in 32 cases (8.7%) of the epidemic period group and 88 cases (3.8%) of the control group with significant difference (χ 2=17.888, P<0.001). During the epidemic period, no infection of medical staff was found through the blood test of IgM/IgG antibodies on COVID-19. No patient and family members were infected with COVID-19 by phone follow-up. Conclusion:Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of selective endoscopy decreases sharply during the epidemic period, while the detection rate of various GI malignant tumors increases significantly, which indicates that patients with high-risk symptoms of GI malignancies should still receive endoscopy as soon as possible. Provided strict adherence to the epidemic prevention standards formulated by the state and professional societies, it is necessary to carry out clinical diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.

Objective:To explore the necessity and safety of selective endoscopy to detect gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Methods:A retrospective cohort study was carried out to analyze the clinical data of selective endoscopy performed at the Endoscopic Center, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University from February 20 to March 6, 2020. Clinical data included epidemiological questionnaire, chief complaints, endoscopic findings and biopsy pathology results, etc. All medical staff had blood test for IgM/IgG antibodies of COVID-19. Patients and their families were followed up by phone to determine whether they were infected with COVID-19. Meanwhile, the clinical data of selective endoscopy during the same period from February 20 to March 6, 2019 were collected as the control group to compare the overall results of endoscopy examinations during the epidemic and the detection rate of GI malignancy.Results:A total of 911 patients underwent endoscopy in the epidemic period group, and a total of 5746 cases in the control group, which was 6.3 times over the epidemic period group. In the epidemic period group, 544 cases received gastroscopy and 367 cases received colonoscopy, while 3433 cases received gastroscopy and 2313 cases received colonoscopy in the control group, which were both 6.3 times of epidemic period group. Gastroscopy revealed that 39 patients (7.2%) were diagnosed with upper GI malignancies in the epidemic period group and 77 patients (2.2%) in the control group with significant difference (χ 2=40.243, P<0.001). The detection rate of gastric cancer in these two groups was 3.3% ( n=18) and 1.7% ( n=59) respectively with significant difference (χ 2=6.254, P=0.012). The detection rate of esophageal cancer was 3.7% ( n=20) and 0.5% ( n=18) respectively with significant difference (χ 2=49.303, P<0.001). Colonoscopy revealed that colorectal cancer was found in 32 cases (8.7%) of the epidemic period group and 88 cases (3.8%) of the control group with significant difference (χ 2=17.888, P<0.001). During the epidemic period, no infection of medical staff was found through the blood test of IgM/IgG antibodies on COVID-19. No patient and family members were infected with COVID-19 by phone follow-up. Conclusion:Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of selective endoscopy decreases sharply during the epidemic period, while the detection rate of various GI malignant tumors increases significantly, which indicates that patients with high-risk symptoms of GI malignancies should still receive endoscopy as soon as possible. Provided strict adherence to the epidemic prevention standards formulated by the state and professional societies, it is necessary to carry out clinical diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.