Correlation between Plasma D-dimer Count and Features of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#More and more patients with small pulmonary nodules (SPN) can be found along with the developing of chest low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). With current examinations not all the SPN can be diagnosed to be benign or malignant and not all the malignant nodules can be diagnosed to be lymphatic metastasis. We need to study the correlation between plasma D-dimer count of patients before surgery with pathology features of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).@*METHODS@#The study comprised 567 highly suspected lung cancer patients. Preoperative plasma D-dimer were qualified, and the relationship between plasma D-dimer with pathology features including benign or malignant nodules, tumor size and involvement of lymph nodes was examined using Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficients.@*RESULTS@#The median plasma D-dimer values were statistically higher in NSCLC patients than in those who suffered from benign lung nodules (P112.5 ng/mL) and malignant lymph node involvement in stage T1 lung cancer.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The plasma D-dimer maybe useful for early diagnosis, staging and prognosis of the patients with NSCLC. The plasma D-dimer can be one of the indicator to identify what kind of patients need mediastinal lymph node cleaning.

A Meta-analysis of the Therapeutic Effect of Nape Acupuncture on Post-stroke dysphagia in Domestic Literature / 上海针灸杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical effect of nape acupuncture on post-stroke dysphagia by a meta-analysis.Method Domestic literature on clinical randomized controlled trials of nape acupuncture treatment of post-stroke dysphagia published from Jun. 2004 to Jun. 2014 were obtained by a computer search ofChina National Knowledge Internet(CNKI), Wanfang Data medical information system (WF), VIP information resource system (VIP) and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) combined with a manual search of Jinan University library journal database. Literature inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to extract data and the qualities of the included studies were assessed using a Jadad rating scale. A meta-analysis was made using the software ReviewManager 5.2.ResultA total of 17 articles were included with 1158 patients. The results of meta-analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the total efficacy rate [OR=3.99, 95%CI(2.83, 5.63),P<0.00001] and the cure rate[OR=2.67, 95%CI(2.03, 3.53),P<0.00001] between the nape acupuncture and control groups.ConclusionNape acupuncture has clinically a good therapeutic effect on post-stroke dysphagia. Multi-center, large-sample and high-quality studies are still needed for validation because the qualities of the included articles are lower, which is one of the factors influencing the assessment.