Clinical observation on effect of total glucosides of paeony combined with methotrexate on rheumatoid arthritis / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of total glucosides of paeony (TGP) combined with methotrex-ate (MTX) on rheumatoid arthritis (RA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two hundred and sixty patients were assigned to two groups, the treated group (180 cases) was orally administered with MTX plus TGP, and the control group (80 cases) with MTX plus sulfasalazine (SSZ). The therapeutic course for both groups was 24 weeks. The clinical effect and the indexes for RA were observed after treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total effective rate at the 4th, 8th, 12th, 24th week of the treatment was 70%, 81%, 94%, 98% in the treated group, and 60%, 85%, 93%, 94% in the control, respectively, with insignificant difference found between the two groups (P > 0.05). Various indexes of RA were markedly improved in both two groups after treatment but the improvement in the treated group was better than that in the control group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>TGP combined MTX treatment shows favorable effect on RA, showing a quicker initiation with less side-effect and higher compliance.</p>

Secular trend of nosocomial pneumonia in an university hospital in Zhengzhou / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the secular trend of infection rate, risk factor exposure rates for nosocomial pneumonia (NP), and to evaluate the nosocomial infection surveillance and control programs efficacy in an university hospital from 1993 to 2000.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>All 126 665 hospitalized patients from 1993 to 2000 were studied for NP. The independent risk factors for NP were analyzed by using case-control study method and logistic regression technique. The time-specific rates for NP and risk factor exposure were calculated annually.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The infection rates for NP were decreased by 50% from 1.20% in 1993 to 0.60% in 2000. The logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors for NP were immunosuppressive therapy (OR = 2.72), chemotherapy (OR = 2.17), cancer (OR = 1.45), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, OR = 1.88), ICU (OR = 3.18), coma (OR = 3.26), tracheotomy (OR = 14.95), hemodialysis (OR = 5.12), bone or lumbar puncture (OR = 1.82). The time-trends for exposure rates of COPD and bone or lumbar puncture were slightly decreased, however those for the others and the synthetic risk factors were not changed significantly.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The infection rates for NP were significantly decreased in the case of no change for exposure rates of risk factors for NP, this suggests that the nosocomial infection surveillance and control programs were effective for lowering infection rate for NP in this hospital.</p>