ABSTRACT
@#Objective To investigate the correlation between lung ultrasonography and pulmonary complications after cardiac surgery. Methods Fifty-two patients after cardiac surgery in our hospital from January to May 2017 were recruited. There were 27 males and 25 females, aged 60.50±10.43 years. Lung ultrasonography was performed by specially trained observers, video data were saved, and lung ultrasound score (LUS) were recorded. The correlation between the LUS and the patients' pulmonary function was evaluated. Results LUS was 17.80±3.87, which was negatively correlated to the ratio of arterial PO2 to the inspired oxygen fraction (PaO2/FiO2) during examination, without significant difference (r=–0.363, P=0.095), but significantly negatively correlated to PaO2/FiO2 changes 24 hours postoperatively (r=–0.464, P=0.034). Conclusion The changes of lung ventilation area may occur earlier than the changes of lung function. Bedside LUS is an effective method for clinical monitoring of pulmonary complications.
ABSTRACT
Clopidogrel was believed to be superior to aspirin by the well-known CAPRIE trial. However, no other large clinical trials demonstrated the same results, but all focused on the combina-tion use of clopidogrel with aspirin, and combination therapy in CREDO was called the "Emperor's New Clothes". However, no one overturned the results of these clinical trials by quantitatively ana-lyzing them. We reviewed ten large-scale clinical trials about clopidogrel. On the basis of results of CAPRIE, CREDO and CHARISMA trials, we re-estimated their minimal sample sizes and their powers by three well-established statistical methodologies. From the results of CAPRIE, we inferred that the minimal sample size should be 85 086 or 84 968 but its power was only 30.70%. A huge gap existed. The same was also true of CREDO and CHARISMA trials. Moreover, in CAPRIE trial, 0 was included in the 95% confidence interval and 1 was included in the 95% confidence interval for the relative risk. There were some paradoxical data in CAPRIE trial. We are led to conclude that the results in CAPRIE, CREDO, and from the subgroup analysis in CHARISMA trials were questionable. These results failed to demonstrate that clopidogrel was superior to aspirin or that clopidogrel used in combination with aspirin was better than aspirin alone. The cost-effectiveness analyses by some pre-vious studies were not reliable.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the efficacy and mechanism of Fengshikang (FSK) in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-eight patients with RA of damp-heat block syndrome type in Chinese medicine (CM), were randomized into two groups. They all received glucocorticoid therapy for 1 month, but FSK was administered to the 20 patients in the CM group in addition, while to the 18 in the WM group, MTX was given. Besides, a normal control group with 20 healthy subjects was set up. Blood levels of RA related indices were measured and compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After treatment, the levels of rheumatoid factor (RF) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were significantly reduced in both groups (P<0.05), but the reduction was more significant in the CM group (P<0.05). No significant change was found in the level of ESR after treatment and showed no significant difference between groups (P>0.05). Both hGRalpha mRNA and hGRbeta mRNA expressions were significantly higher in the patients than in the normal controls (P<0.01), they were lowered after treatment in the CM group (P<0.01), but significant reduction could only be found in level of hGRbeta mRNA in the control group (P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>FSK combined with glucocorticoid can effectively control the inflammatory reaction, decrease the level of hGRalpha and hGRbeta expressions and enhance the clinical efficacy in treating RA.</p>
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Arthritis, Rheumatoid , Drug Therapy , Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Therapeutic Uses , Glucocorticoids , Therapeutic Uses , Methylprednisolone , Therapeutic Uses , Phytotherapy , RNA, Messenger , Genetics , Metabolism , Receptors, Glucocorticoid , Genetics , MetabolismABSTRACT
Over-expression of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is associated with the development of multi-drug resistance ( MDR). Pgp has been focused on as the main target in designing chemotherapy strategy. In this article we review some of the latest advancement in designing and evaluation methods of P- glycoprotein inhibitors.