Post-stroke dysphagia treated with four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation: a randomized controlled trial / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the clinical efficacy on post-stroke dysphagia treated with four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation.@*METHODS@#Sixty patients with post-stroke dysphagia were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, with 30 cases in each group. The neuromuscular electrical stimulation was adopted in the control group. Besides the treatment as the control group, in the observation group, the four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat was supplemented. Step 1: the three areas of scalp acupuncture on the affected side were stimulated. Step 2: pricking method was operated on the posterior pharyngeal wall. Step 3: bleeding technique was operated at Jinjin (EX-HN 12) and Yuye (EX-HN 13). Step 4: deep insertion of needle was operated at three-pharynx points. The needles were retained for 30 min at the three areas of scalp acupuncture and the three-pharynx points. The intervention of each group was delivered once daily, 6 times a week, at the interval of 1 day. One course of treatment was 1 week and 4 successive courses were required. The rating of Kubota water swallow test, the score of standardized swallowing assessment (SSA) and the rating of Rosenbek penetration- aspiration scale (PAS) were observed before and after treatment in patients of the two groups. The incidence of clinical complications and clinical efficacy were compared between the two groups.@*RESULTS@#Compared with those before treatment, the rating of Kubota water swallow test, the scores of SSA and the rating of PAS of patients in the two groups were decreased after treatment (P<0.01), and the values of the observation group were lower than those of the control group after treatment (P<0.05). The incidence of clinical complications in the observation group was 13.3% (4/30), lower than 36.7% (11/30) in the control group (P<0.05). The total effective rate in the observation group was 93.3% (28/30), which was better than 70.0% (21/30) in the control group (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#The four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation can improve the swallowing function of patients with post-stroke dysphagia and reduce the incidence of clinical complications.

Complex network analysis of law on Chinese herbal drugs intervention on radiation induced lung injury / 中国中药杂志

To mainly analyze the prescription rules of Chinese herbal drugs for radiation induced lung injury, optimize the prescriptions, and provide a reference for the clinical treatment of radiation induced lung injury. The major Chinese databases CNKI, CBM and Wanfang data were searched to obtain the literature on Chinese herbal drugs for radiation induced lung injury. BICOMS 2 software was used to extract and collect all Chinese herbal drugs information and generate the co-occurrence matrix; NetDraw and Gcluto software were then used to make network map and visualization matrix for analysis. A total of 552 articles (19 types and 304 Chinese herbal drugs) were included. Ophiopogon japonicus had the highest frequency (229 times), followed by Astragalus membranaceus(181 times), Glycyrrhiza uralensis (166 times), and Scutellaria baicalensis (150 times). After the classification of efficacy, deficiency-supplementing medicinal (69 kinds of Chinese herbs), heat-clearing medicine (51 kinds of Chinese herbs) and phlegm cough medicine (42 kinds of Chinese herbs) accounted for 53.29% of all the Chinese herbs, acting in the main position. After the prescription analysis for the top 25 herbal prescriptions, six main structures of common prescriptions were found for the treatment of radiation induced lung injury. There are many kinds of Chinese herbal drugs for the treatment of radiation induced lung injury in clinical application. In the future, researchers can mainly focus on Ophiopogon japonicus etc. as the main drugs, combine with other high-frequency Chinese herbal drugs found in this study, or directly refer to the main structures of commonly used prescriptions found in this analysis.

Nedaplatin or cisplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil for treatment of stage III-IVa nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a randomized controlled study / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the efficacy and side effects of nedaplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) and cisplatin plus 5-Fu for treatment of stage III-IVa nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 100 patients with NPC proved by histopathology were divided into nedaplatin plus 5-Fu group (NF group) and cisplatin plus 5-Fu group (PF group), 50 cases in each group. NF group: nedaplatin 30 mg/m(2), d1-d3, 5-Fu 500 mg/m(2) d1-d5, repeated every 3 weeks for 2 cycles. PF group: cisplatin 30 mg/m(2) d1-d3, 5-Fu 500 mg/m(2) d1-d5, repeated every 3 weeks for 2 cycles. χ(2) test was used to compare the efficacy and side-effects of the two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All the 100 cases were evaluable and their clinical data in the two groups were comparable. Six patients with complete response were observed, 3 cases in NF group and 3 in PF group. The overall response rates were 86.0% in NF group and 84.0% in PF group, with no significant difference (χ(2) = 0.078, P = 0.779). The rates of leukocytopenia, thrombocytopenia, impairment of hepatic and renal function were similar whereas more patients in the PF group than in the NF group suffered from nausea and vomiting (88.0% vs. 56.0%, P = 0.000).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Nedaplatin plus 5-Fu is an effective treatment regimen for NPC. When compared with PF regimen, the response rate is similar. However, NF regimen shows a significant superiority in reducing nausea and vomiting.</p>

Estimation of probability of unprotected heterosexual vaginal transmission of HIV-1 from clients to female sex workers in Kaiyuan, Yunnan Province, China / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To estimate the probability of unprotected heterosexual vaginal transmission of HIV-1 from clients to Female Sex Workers (FSWs) in Kaiyuan County, Yunnan province, China, and analyze factors which impact the transmission probability.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An open cohort research of FSWs in Kaiyuan was created from surveys conducted in April 2008, October 2008, and April 2009. Two cross-sectional surveys of local clients were also carried out in May 2008 and November 2008. A model was developed to estimate the probability of unprotected heterosexual vaginal transmission of HIV-1 from clients to FSWs.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The transmission probability from clients to FSWs was estimated as 0.0023 [95%CI 0.0014-0.0032] per unprotected heterosexual act.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The transmission probability among this group engaging in commercial sex in Yunnan province differs from that found in studies from other countries, and future studies should estimate the influence factors of HIV-1 transmission probability, such as stage of HIV infection, co-morbid sexually transmitted infections (STIs).</p>