Differential diagnosis of motor neuron disease / 中华神经科杂志

Motor neuron disease (MND) is a type of chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease involving upper and/or lower motor neurons, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, progressive bulbar palsy, primary lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy, and spinal muscular atrophy. Different types of motor neuron diseases have distinct characteristics. Therefore, the diagnosis mainly depends on clinical manifestations, physical examination and electrophysiological examination, and is made by exclusion of other diseases. Atypical cases are sometimes difficult for clinical physicians to distinguish from other diseases involving upper and/or lower motor neurons. This article is going to introduce various types of MND and their differential diagnosis according to site of lesion of motor neuron disease.

Differential diagnosis of motor neuron disease / 中华神经科杂志

Motor neuron disease (MND) is a type of chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease involving upper and/or lower motor neurons, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, progressive bulbar palsy, primary lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy, and spinal muscular atrophy. Different types of motor neuron diseases have distinct characteristics. Therefore, the diagnosis mainly depends on clinical manifestations, physical examination and electrophysiological examination, and is made by exclusion of other diseases. Atypical cases are sometimes difficult for clinical physicians to distinguish from other diseases involving upper and/or lower motor neurons. This article is going to introduce various types of MND and their differential diagnosis according to site of lesion of motor neuron disease.

Retrospective Analysis of 291 Cases of Medical Malpractice Involving Death / 法医学杂志

Objective To study the medical malpractice cases involving death, and discuss the identification ideas and methods of medical malpractice cases. Methods A total of 291 medical malpractice cases involving death accepted and settled from January 2012 to December 2017 at the Judicial Appraisal Center of Southern Medical University were collected. Based on the age, gender, hospital level, clinical department, whether or not autopsy was performed, cause of death, cause of medical mistakes, causality and causative potency of the appraised person, statistical analysis was made. Results There were more males than females in medical malpractice cases involving death. Mostly young adults or children were involved in these cases. The number of cases involving tertiary hospitals was the highest; among the clinical departments, the internal medicine department had the largest number of cases, followed by surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, etc. Autopsy rate has a trend of increasing year by year. Most patients die from the natural outcomes of their disease or ineffective treatment. Most hospitals have certain medical mistakes, and have an indirect correlation with the patient's death, mainly slight factors. Conclusion Judicial appraisal of medical malpractice should follow the principle of "one-effect and multi-cause", and comprehensively consider various factors such as, the diseases and constitution of the patient, natural outcomes of the diseases, the current medical technology and the level of diagnosis and treatment of the hospital, etc.

Effectiveness of acupuncture for palliative care in cancer patients: a systematic review / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To critically evaluate the currently available randomized clinical trials regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture in palliative care for cancer patients, hence, to provide sufficient evidences for the widespread use of acupuncture in cancer treatment.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two independent reviewers extracted data from all of the randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that assessed the efficacy of acupuncture in palliative care for cancer patients. Seven databases were searched from their respective inception to December 2010. All eligible trials identified were evaluated by two independent reviewers using the Jadad scale, and data from the articles were validated and extracted.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In total, 33 RCTs met the inclusion criteria. The effects of acupuncture on different cancer-related aspects were shown, including chemotherapy or radiotherapy-induced side effects (13/33, 39.4%), cancer pain (6/33, 18.2%), post-operative urinary retention (4/33, 12.1%), quality of life (2/33, 6.1%), vasomotor syndrome (2/33, 6.1%), post-operative gastrointestinal dysfunction (2/33, 6.1%), prevention of prolonged postoperative ileus (2/33, 6.1%), joint symptoms (1/33, 3.0%), and immunomodulation (1/33, 3.0%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The result of our systematic review suggested that the effectiveness of acupuncture in palliative care for cancer patients is promising, especially in reducing chemotherapy or radiotherapyinduced side effects and cancer pain. Acupuncture may be an appropriate adjunctive treatment for palliative care.</p>

Analysis on clinical features and treatment of herpes zoster patients hospitalized in real world / 中国中药杂志

From the hospital information system (HIS) of 20 national grade III-A general hospitals, 2 960 cases of herpes zoster as the research object, analyzes the relations between the general information, syndrome of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), western medicine combined diseases, the relationship between the solar term and the incidence of herpes zoster, and the combined use of Chinese and western medicine. Among the patients with 46-65 year old has the highest percentage of diseased; admission to general outpatient clinic is the most; the most common medical payment is medicare; combined disease such as hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease is more common; early treatment effect of herpes zoster is better than the sequelae; summer and autumn solar term patients is hospitalized more, TCM syndrome is damp heat of liver fire; about drugs, western medicine is the most commonly used vitamin B1 and mecobalamin, traditional Chinese medicine is the most frequently used Danhong injection, combination therapy with promoting blood circulation drugs and neurotrophic drugs. Thus, herpes zoster, more common in elderly patients, with no obvious relationship between solar term, should be early diagnosis and early treatment, often with combination of Chinese traditional and western medicine treatment.