Effectiveness of pilates-based exercises on the diastasis recti abdominis in climacteric women: a randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have related the climacteric period with changes in connective tissue elasticity that may be related to diastasis recti abdominis. Mat Pilates is a method of exercise without impact that currently has more practitioners, due to its satisfactory results. However, there are no studies that evaluate the effectiveness of mat Pilates for women with diastasis recti abdominis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the mat Pilates program in climacteric women with diastasis recti abdominis. METHODS: This randomized single-blinded clinical trial evaluated climacteric women with diastasis recti abdominis. The participants were randomized into the experimental group, which participated in 3 weekly sessions of mat Pilates for 12 weeks for a total of 36 sessions, and the control group (without exercises). The inter-rectus distance was measured with a digital caliper. The G*Power Version 3.1.9.2. software was used for the sample calculation, and the SPSS 20.0 program was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The study comprised 21 women, including 10 in the control group and 11 in the experimental group, with mean ages of 54.3 ± 7.1 and 55.3 ± 6.0 years and body mass index values of 28.8 ± 5.5 kg/m2 and 29.9 ± 4.48 kg/m2, respectively. In the experimental group, reductions were observed in all the measures related to diastasis recti abdominis (p<0.05) in the supraumbilical, umbilical, and infra-umbilical regions. CONCLUSION: The mat Pilates method is effective for reducing diastasis recti abdominis in the climacteric period.

Efficiency of pulsed electromagnetic field and neuromuscular electrical stimulation on painful shoulder following stroke / Eficiência do campo eletromagnético pulsado e da estimulação elétrica neuromuscular em ombro doloroso após acidente vascular cerebral

INTRODUCTION: Shoulder pain after stroke, a complication with a prevalence of up to 16­84% usually occurs after 2­3 months and leads to patients withdrawing from rehabilitation programs, staying in the hospital longer, having less limb function and having a great negative impact on their quality of life. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of PEMF and NMES in reducing shoulder pain in patients with stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective, randomized controlled trial included 51 patients with shoulder pain following stroke. The patients were randomly assigned to three groups (17 people in each group): Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF), Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) and Control group. The outcome measures were Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Fugl Meyer Assessment­Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), Active and Passive Range of Motion (AROM/PROM) assessed at the baseline, six weeks into the intervention, and one week into the follow-up. RESULTS: VAS score for pain showed a mean change of 1.60, 1.60 and 4.94 in PEMF, NMES, and control respectively after 20 sessions. It showed pain was significantly improved in all the groups (p<0.001), but the effectiveness of the PEMF and NMES groups was superior to the control group. CONCLUSION: The current literature showed that PEMF & NMES are effective in improving post-stroke shoulder pain, spasticity, range of motion and motor function and a novel method for stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation.

INTRODUÇÃO: Dor no ombro após acidente vascular cerebral com prevalência de 16­84% geralmente ocorre após 2­3 meses e pode resultar na suspensão de programas de reabilitação, internações hospitalares mais longas e redução da função dos membros, prejudicando qualidade de vida dos pacientes com AVC. O objetivo do presente estudo foi determinar o efeito da PEMF e da EENM na redução da dor no ombro em pacientes com acidente vascular cerebral. MATERIAL E MÉTODOS: Um estudo prospectivo, randomizado e controlado incluiu 51 pacientes com dor no ombro pós-AVC. Os pacientes foram divididos aleatoriamente em três grupos (17 pessoas em cada grupo): grupo Campo Eletromagnético Pulsado (PEMF), grupo Estimulação Elétrica Neuromuscular (EENM) e grupo Controle. As medidas de resultados foram na Escala Visual Analógica (VAS), Escala de Ashworth Modificada (MAS) e Avaliação de Fugl Meyer ­ Extremidade Superior (FMA-UE), Amplitude de Movimento (AROM/PROM) foram avaliadas no início do estudo, após seis semanas de tratamento, e após um acompanhamento semanal. RESULTADOS: A pontuação VAS para dor mostrada uma alteração média de 1,60, 1,60 e 4,94 na PEMF, EENM e Controle, respectivamente, após 20 sessões. Mostrou melhora significativa entre os três grupos (p<0,001), mas a eficácia do grupo PEMF e EENM foi superior ao grupo Controle. CONCLUSÃO: O presente estudo mostrou que PEMF e EENM são eficazes na melhora da dor no ombro pós-AVC, espasticidade, amplitude de movimento e função motora e um novo método para pacientes com AVC em reabilitação. Nossas descobertas indicam que a eficácia da EENM é claramente superior à do PEMF na manutenção da analgesia a longo prazo.

Importancia del laboratorio en los ensayos clínicos

Los resultados de los exámenes que se realizan en el laboratorio clínico deben constituir una parte esencial en la evaluación de los sujetos incluidos en los ensayos clínicos para la introducción de nuevos medicamentos. En este artículo se describen los aspectos más importantes del trabajo en el laboratorio durante el desarrollo de un ensayo donde se emplean nuevas tecnologías. Los ensayos clínicos no solo mejoran los indicadores de salud de la población, sino que, además, exigen los mejores estándares de diagnóstico y evaluación del tratamiento, a través de nuevas tecnologías, donde se incluye el laboratorio clínico.

The results of the exams that are carried out in the clinical laboratory should constitute an essential part in the evaluation of people included in clinical trials for the introduction of new medications. In this article the most important aspects of work in the laboratory are described, during the development of a trial where new technologies are used. Clinical trials not only improve health indicators of the population, but also, demand the best diagnosis standards and evaluation of the treatment, through new technologies, where clinical laboratory is included.

¿Ensayos clínicos de superioridad, equivalencia o no inferioridad? / ¿Clinical trials of superiority, non-inferiority or equivalence?

La eficacia de una nueva intervención se establece generalmente a través de ensayos clínicos (EC) con asignación aleatoria (AA). Sin embargo, entre otros tantos desafíos metodológicos, el especificar la hipótesis de un EC con AA, sigue siendo un problema complejo de resolver para los investigadores clínicos. En este manuscrito discutimos las características de tres variantes de los EC con AA: EC de superioridad (ECS), EC de no-inferioridad (ECNI), y EC de equivalencia (ECE). Estos tres tipos de EC tienen supuestos diferentes sobre los efectos de una intervención, por lo que plantear hipótesis y definir objetivos requiere conocer algunos supuestos subyacentes a estos EC, incluso hasta elementos relacionados con la estimación del tamaño de muestra para cada cual. El objetivo de este manuscrito fue describir las diferencias metodológicas entre ECS, ECNI y ECE.

Efficacy and effectivity of new interventions are generally established through randomized clinical trials (RCTs). However, among many other methodological challenges, specifying the hypothesis of a RCT remains complex problem for clinical researchers. In this manuscript we discuss the characteristics of three variants of RCTs: superiority RCT (SRCT), non-inferiority RCT (NIRCT), and equivalence RCT (ERCT). These three types of RCT have different assumptions about the effects of an intervention, so setting hypotheses and defining objectives requires knowing some assumptions underlying these RCTs, including elements related to the estimation of the sample size for each one. The aim of this manuscript was to describe methodological differences between SRCT, NIRCT and ERCT.

Named entity recognition of eligibility criteria for clinical trials based on BioBERT and BiLSTM / 中国医学物理学杂志

Objective To present a named entity recognition method referred to as BioBERT-Att-BiLSTM-CRF for eligibility criteria based on the BioBERT pretrained model.The method can automatically extract relevant information from clinical trials and provide assistance in efficiently formulating eligibility criteria.Methods Based on the UMLS medical semantic network and expert-defined rules,the study established medical entity annotation rules and constructed a named entity recognition corpus to clarify the entity recognition task.BioBERT-Att-BiLSTM-CRF converted the text into BioBERT vectors and inputted them into a bidirectional long short-term memory network to capture contextual semantic features.Meanwhile,attention mechanisms were applied to extract key features,and a conditional random field was used for decoding and outputting the optimal label sequence.Results BioBERT-Att-BiLSTM-CRF outperformed other baseline models on the eligibility criteria named entity recognition dataset.Conclusion BioBERT-Att-BiLSTM-CRF can efficiently extract eligibility criteria-related information from clinical trials,thereby enhancing the scientific validity of clinical trial registration data and providing assistance in the formulation of eligibility criteria for clinical trials.

Analysis on the Registration of Clinical Trials of Headache Treated by TCM / 中国中医药信息杂志

Objective To analyze the registered clinical trials of headache treated by TCM;To discuss the current research status;To provide reference for the optimization of subsequent clinical trial research plans.Methods All clinical trials of headache treated by TCM were retrieved from the ChiCTR and the ClinicalTrials.The retrieval time was from the database establishment to May 22,2023.The general characteristics,study types,intervention measures and outcome indicators of the trials were analyzed respectively.Results A total of 104 registered studies were included,with the number of registered studies increasing since 2004 and reaching a peak in 2020,involving 25 provincial administrative regions or countries and 69 clinical trial institutions;the funding sources were mainly scientific research funds of universities,national finance and local finance.The research type was mainly intervention research;the designing scheme was mainly randomized parallel control study;the high frequency random method was simple random method;45 registered studies used blind methods.Exploratory studies/pre-trials were the most commonly used in the phases of clinical researches.Most of the registered studies were single-center clinical trials with a total sample size of 9 648 patients.The main interventions were acupuncture and oral Chinese medicines.The high frequency outcome indicators included life quality of score,headache attack frequency,headache attack days and headache severity,etc.There were some problems in outcome indicators,such as non-standard,lack of TCM characteristic advantages,and insufficient patient participation.Conclusion The number of registered studies of headache treated by TCM has increased by year,but there are some problems in design elements,such as random method,blind method,number of research centers,sample size and the setting of outcome indicator.

Progress of interventional researches on peritoneal function protection / 中华肾脏病杂志

With the prolongation of peritoneal dialysis time, the peritoneum probably confronts structural and functional deterioration due to multiple factors, which will affect the efficiency of peritoneal dialysis. Clinically effective measures to protect peritoneal function are still lacking. This article reviewed studies in the last decade on protection of peritoneal function, which included strategies on dialysis prescription, medicine treatments for protection of peritoneal function, and non-medicine treatments such as far-infrared therapy and stem cell transplantation, to provide guidances for subsequent researches.

Analysis of issues and exploration of key review points in clinical trial establishment review / 中华医学科研管理杂志

Objective:As China′s new drug review and approval system continues to evolve, clinical trial management procedures are being continuously promoted and refined. This article aims to identify key review points for clinical trial establishment reviews and offer recommendations for optimizing the review process.Methods:By combining the regulatory requirements for clinical trial establishment management and the unique situation of our institution, the status of establishment approval applications upon initial submission and challenges encountered during establishment approval reviews were analyzed. The factors that may affect the likelihood of initial approval for establishment applications, and the elements and standards involved in clinical trial establishment approval reviews were studied.Results:From 2020 to 2022, the hospital received a total of 514 clinical trial establishment applications for registration purposes, with a first-time approval rate of 30.2%.Whether an application served as a team leader unit or a single-center clinical trial significantly impacted its likelihood of initial approval ( P<0.05). In clinical trial establishment reviews, drug clinical trials were most commonly associated with issues regarding sponsor qualifications, drug labeling, CRA qualifications, and drug testing reports. For medical device clinical trials, the most common issues were related to PI GCP certificate expiration dates, CRA qualifications, sponsor qualifications, and inspection reports. Conclusions:To enhance the quality and efficiency of clinical trial establishment reviews, it is recommended that trade organizations publish guidance documents on key points for clinical trial establishment reviews. Additionally, it is essential to enhance communication and collaboration among institutions, sponsors, and CROs and provide more training for relevant personnel, to jointly promote a more streamlined and effective clinical trial establishment review process.

Hepatitis B vaccine： From prevention to treatment / 临床肝胆病杂志

Hepatitis B vaccination is the most economical and effective way to prevent HBV infection. The advances in molecular biology and genetic engineering have continuously improved the manufacturing process of vaccines， and hepatitis B vaccine has gradually developed from the initial plasma-derived vaccine to the currently used recombinant vaccine. Preventive hepatitis B vaccine has been clinically tested in patients with HBsAg seroclearance to increase the level of anti-HBs， with certain safety and efficacy. As one of the multiple targets for new drugs in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B， a therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine based on HBsAg is already in the stages of research and development and clinical trial.

Global Landscape of Clinical Trials in Lung Cancer / 肿瘤防治研究

Lung cancer, the second most prevalent cancer in the world with a persistently high mortality rate, threatens the life and health of all humanity. With the development of clinical trials, the treatment options for lung cancer have been enriched, and the understanding of the timing of intervention has become more explicit than before. Thus, the prognosis of lung cancer has significantly improved. However, unmet clinical needs still exist. This review provides the global trend of clinical research in lung cancer treatment and describes the evolution of clinical trials in terms of design, implementation, and regulation. The change in study endpoints is conducive to shortening the research and development cycle and accelerating the launch of drugs. The refinement of study populations and therapeutic targets facilitates the realization of the maximum efficacy of precision treatment. The integration of comprehensive and diversified therapeutic strategies and the combination of prevention and treatment further promote the improvement of survival and the alleviation of social burden. This review also proposes a prospective direction for future development of clinical research in lung cancer.

Challenges， countermeasures and key points of ethical review for decentralized clinical trials / 中国医学伦理学

Decentralized clinical trials （DCT） are bringing new changes to clinical trials， the core concept of “patient-centered” must be adhered， and the safety and rights of research participants must be adequately safeguarded. Although DCTs have similarities with traditional clinical trials， they are not suitable for all clinical trials， and are more suitable for oral administration， stable condition of study participants， and longer duration of treatment in clinical trials. DCT， elements must be selected based on the characteristics of clinical trials， and strike a balance between improving the sense of gain， safety， and rights and dignity of research participants， as well as the quality of data collected. Currently， DCT in China face many challenges. To actively promote DCTs in China， regulatory regulations and guiding principles should be improved. Based on patient-centered design principles， the first discussion requires real-time online communication. Researchers should provide more clinical trial services， improve risk control and accessibility of medical assistance， use third-party convenient payments， ensure fair recruitment of research participants， consider compliance， validate digital health technology， remote monitoring and electronic informed consent compliance， ensure the security of data collection， transmission， and analysis， as well as strengthen multi-party training. Ethical review is one of the important means to protect the safety and rights of research participants. Ethics committees should focus on appropriate DCTs elements that are patient-centered， compliance and effectiveness of electronic informed consent， processing and reporting of security information， privacy protection of data collection， compliance of remote monitoring， family health follow-up， management of biological samples and experimental medical products， and training programs. The author believed that the complementarity and combination with traditional clinical trials will make DCTs elements implemented more easily and smoothly. By leveraging the power of scientific and technological advances， DCTs will boost the speed of China’s drug and medical device research and development， enhance international competitiveness， and benefit more patients.

Ethical reviewof cosmetic efficacy claims evaluation trails / 中国医学伦理学

The supervision of cosmetics started relatively late in China， and corresponding laws and regulations on ethical review are not yet perfect. The Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulations， which came into force on January 1， 2021， had stricter requirements for cosmetic efficacy claims， requiring that cosmetic efficacy claims should have a sufficient scientific basis. Cosmetic efficacy claims evaluation trials include human efficacy evaluation trials， consumer use tests， and laboratory trials. Human efficacy evaluation trials and consumer use tests should comply with the requirements of ethical principles， the necessary product safety evaluation should be completed before the tests are carried out， to ensure that there is no harm to the human health of research participants （or consumers） under normal， foreseeable circumstances. The Regulations on the Administration of Registration and Filing Materials for Cosmetics required that product test reports should include microbiological and physical-chemical tests， toxicological trials， human safety trial reports， and human efficacy trial reports. The key points of the ethics committee’s review of cosmetic efficacy claims evaluation trials include the reasonableness of the trial protocol， consumer survey and expert evaluation， selection of detection methods， study population and sample size， safety evaluation of the cosmetics， risk assessment of cosmetic raw materials， protection of privacy， and qualifications of the testing institutions and researchers. High-quality ethical review is conducive to safeguarding the safety and rights of research participants （or consumers）， and will also promote the quality of cosmetic efficacy claims evaluation trails in China.

Latest advances in the development of tuberculosis vaccines in global clinical trials: a review / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the biggest infectious killers worldwide. Vaccine is the most satisfactory tool for prevention of TB; however, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the widely used vaccine in clinical for the prevention of TB, has limitations in protective effects. Development of novel TB vaccines is therefore of urgent need. Currently, there are 15 novel TB vaccine candidates in clinical trials, including live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines, subunit vaccines and viral-vectored vaccines, which open the door for the ultimate target of the End TB Strategy. This review summarizes the latest advances in the development of TB vaccines in global clinical trials, so as to provide insights into TB control.

Summary and analysis of clinical trials for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

Age-related macular degeneration(ARMD)is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the elderly. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)drugs have become the first-line treatment for neovascular ARMD, which has greatly changed the prognosis. However, dry ARMD still lacks effective treatment means, focusing on prevention. At present, several clinical treatment methods are being explored, including antioxidant therapy, complement therapy, neuroprotective therapy, gene therapy, etc. This review mainly summarizes the existing clinical trials and their progress on the treatment of dry ARMD, in order to provide future prospects for the treatment of dry ARMD. A number of clinical trials have already produced promising results for the treatment of dry ARMD, and it is believed that more and more clinical trials will be successful in the near future to provide more effective treatments for patients with dry ARMD.

Critical points in the current construction of ethics committees at medical institutions / 现代医院

Significant advancements have been made in the establishment of ethics committees within medical institu-tions.However,in order to achieve a high-quality development it is imperative to focus on such critical points as distinguishment between biomedical research and the clinical application of medical technologies,steadfast adherence to the fundamental princi-ples of ethical review,establishment of an ethics committee with independent administrative authority,establishing independent ethics review committees in large medical institutions based on specialty,and strengthening of ethical training for medical person-nel and biomedical researchers.

Challenges of ethical review in patient-centered clinical trials / 中国医学伦理学

Patient-centered clinical trials refer to clinical trials that take participant’ needs as the starting point， regard participant as active participants， and take clinical values as the ultimate goals. This concept has become the core guiding ideology of current pharmaceutical research and development， and the model of the patient-centered clinical trial will gradually become the mainstream model of pharmaceutical research and development. Patient-centered clinical trials in China have challenges such as difficulty in changing the way of trial thinking and quality control， increased difficulty in participant’ privacy protection， lack of training for all research parties， and unfair recruitment of research participants. Then suggestions were proposed for patient-centered clinical trials in China from three aspects， including relevant departments provide more policy support， sponsors and relevant third parties timely transform ideas of research and development， as well as researchers and research participants strengthen awareness. This paper also put forward the key points of ethical review of patient-centered clinical trials from 8 aspects， including the trial design that incorporated preference information on patients and took into account the assessment of clinical outcomes， protection of the safety and rights of research participants， recruitment based on the needs of research participants， acceptable informed consent， the rationality of selection of decentralssed clinical trials elements， privacy protection of research participants， training and education of researchers and research participants， and compensation and indemnity of research participants， so as to standardize the ethics review of patient-centered clinical trials and ensure the quality of patient-centered clinical trials.

Study on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Tumor Subjects in Clinical Trials in the Prevention and Control of the COVID -19 / 中国医学伦理学

The outbreak of the COVID -19 has had a big impact on the implementation of clinical trials of tumor drugs and the prevention and control measures such as traffic control and home isolation has caused clinical trials couldn’t proceed normally, so the protection of tumor subjects in clinical trials faces many new challenges. Based on Western and Chinese policies and guidelines on the management of clinical trials during the COVID -19, this paper expounded the impacts of the COVID -19 on tumor patients and tumor clinical trials, analyzed the challenges faced by the protection of tumor subjects in the prevention and control of the COVID -19, and then protected tumor subjects from aspects of optimizing the allocation of health resources, improving non-face-to-face informed consent procedures, strengthening subject visit management, and enhancing clinical trial safety evaluation. It is hoped that these optimization measures can face the future and continue to protect subjects after the end of the epidemic or in new public health emergencies.

A Randomized，Double-blind，Multi-center Clinical Trial of Tengfu Jiangya Tablets Combined with Valsartan/Amlodipine in Treatment of Grade 2 Hypertension with Hyperactivity of Liver Yang / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo observe the clinical efficacy and safety of Tengfu Jiangya tablets combined with valsartan/amlodipine in the treatment of grade 2 hypertension with liver Yang hyperactivity syndrome. MethodAccording to a randomized，double-blind，and placebo parallel control method，288 patients with grade 2 hypertension with liver Yang hyperactivity from 7 subcenters were included. They were randomly divided into an observation group （144 cases） and a control group （144 cases），and then treated with Tengfu Jiangya tablets combined with valsartan/amlodipine and placebo combined with valsartan/amlodipine，respectively. The efficacy was evaluated after four weeks of intervention. During the experiment，the safety indicators and adverse reaction events of the subjects were recorded for safety evaluation，and the efficacy indicators and TCM syndrome scores were recorded for effectiveness evaluation. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted on the statistical results of the main efficacy indicators such as blood pressure （BP） compliance rate to ensure the accuracy of the analysis results. 88 groups of blood samples from each of the treatment and control groups were included as test subjects. Fasting blood samples were collected from the patients in the clinical trial on the day before and after medication，and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA） was performed on the treated serum. The levels of arachidonic acid （AA），thromboxane B2 （TXB2），and prostaglandin E2 （PGE2） in the serum of the patients before and after treatment were measured to explore the regulation of inflammatory factors in the body by Tengfu Jiangya tablets. ResultA total of 271 patients （133 in the observation group and 138 in the control group） completed the trial. There was no statistically significant difference before and after treatment in such safety indicators as the blood routine （white blood cells，red blood cells，and platelets），urine routine （urinary protein and urinary red blood cells），alanine aminotransferase，aspartate aminotransferase，creatinine，urea，and abnormal electrocardiogram，and no serious adverse reactions were observed. After four weeks，the systolic blood pressure （SBP） difference and diastolic blood pressure （DBP） difference of patients in the observation group were greater than those in the control group（P<0.01）. According to the criteria for determining the antihypertensive effect，the overall response rate in the observation group［89.47%（119/133）］ was higher than that in the control group［57.97%（80/138）］ （Z=2.593，P<0.01）. The SBP compliance rate was 61.65%（82/133） and 37.68%（52/138） in the observation group and control group， respectively. The DBP compliance rate in the observation group was 78.20%（104/133），while in the control group it was 55.07%（76/138）. The overall BP compliance rate in the observation group was 48.12%（64/133），while in the control group it was 23.19%（32/138）. The BP compliance rates in the observation group were all significantly higher than those in the control group（χ2=15.571，16.236，18.404，P<0.01）. According to the criteria for evaluating the therapeutic effect of TCM syndrome integration，the overall response rate of the observation group［57.89%（77/133）］ was higher than that of the control group［38.41%（53/133）］ （Z=-3.172，P<0.01）.Compared with those before treatment， the levels of serum AA and TXB2 in the two groups were significantly decreased after treatment （P<0.01）， and the level of PGE2 in the observation group was significantly increased （P<0.01）. Compared with those of the control group after treatment， the levels of AA and TXB2 in the observation group were significantly decreased， while the level of PGE2 was significantly increased （P<0.01）. The results suggest that Tengfu Jiangya tablets can effectively reduce inflammatory factors，reduce the production of inflammatory mediators，and thus prevent the occurrence of inflammatory reactions in the treatment of patients with grade 2 hypertension. ConclusionTengfu Jiangya tablets can more effectively reduce patients' SBP and DBP，improve their BP compliance rates，and improve their TCM syndromes in the treatment of grade 2 hypertension with liver Yang hyperactivity. Its clinical application is safe. Tengfu Jiangya tablets has outstanding clinical efficacy and can be used as an effective intervention method for the treatment of grade 2 hypertension with liver Yang hyperactivity syndrome.

Investigation and analysis of the current status of clinical research nurses / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

AIM: To investigate and analyze the current situation and needs of clinical research nurses in China, in order to provide scientific basis for constructing a training system for research nurses, promoting standardized training, and achieving standardized management for them. METHODS:A self-made questionnaire was used to investigate 102 research nurses from nearly 70 well-known clinical trial institutions in China. The contents of the questionnaire mainly included the general information, professional experience and work content of the research nurses, the sense of accomplishment and training needs of clinical trial work. RESULTS: Among the 102 research nurses surveyed, 92.15% have a bachelor's degree or above; 53.92% of those have intermediate or higher professional titles; 74.51% of them are part-time research nurse. Among professional experiences, 19.61% have more than 10 years of clinical trial experience; 47.06%, 40.20%, and 21.17% of surveyed research nurses were authorized to participate in clinical trial drug management, sample management, and quality control; 70.59% of research nurses have a high sense of achievement in their daily work. In terms of education and training needs, clinical trial related laws and regulations, standardized training for clinical trial protocol implementation, and good clinical practice (GCP) are the three most important aspects. CONCLUSION: Clinical research nurses in China have a relatively high level of education and nursing experience, but there is still a large gap in the amount of professional full-time clinical research nurses in China. Due to the rapid development of innovative drugs and devices, as well as the urgent need to improve the clinical research system, it is necessary to establish a training, assessment, and evaluation system for research nurses that is in line with China's national conditions in order to improve the professional level of research nurses, and improve the quantity and quality of clinical trial research on innovative drugs and devices in China.

Evaluación in vitro de la actividad antifúngica de extractos fluidos de Dichrostachys cinerea L. (marabú) frente a Candida albicans

Introducción: La Dichrostachys cinerea L. (marabú) es una planta que crece en Cuba, de la que se estudian propiedades medicinales. La resistencia de levaduras del género Candida a los antifúngicos sintéticos disponibles en la actualidad es cada vez mayor, por lo que se buscan nuevos compuestos de origen vegetal que puedan ser eficaces en el tratamiento de infecciones causadas por este germen. Objetivo: Evaluar la actividad antifúngica in vitro de Dichrostachys cinerea L. contra una cepa de Candida albicans. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio observacional analítico transversal in vitro para evaluar la actividad antifúngica de extractos fluidos de hojas y de tallos de D. cinerea L mediante el método de macrodilución en caldo y como sustancia de referencia el alcohol. Resultados: A través del proceso se mostró la actividad antifúngica del extracto fluido de tallos de D. cinerea L. al 50 % hasta la dilución 1/32, determinada como la concentración mínima inhibitoria; el extracto fluido de hojas al 30 % no logró inhibir el crecimiento de la cepa de Candida albicans ATCC 10231. Conclusiones: La actividad antifúngica del extracto fluido al 50 % de las hojas de Dichrostachys cinerea L. fue efectiva, no así el preparado farmacéutico al 30 %. Se determinó la concentración mínima inhibitoria del extracto fluido de hojas al 50 % y se demostró que ésta superó a la del alcohol al 50 % en tres diluciones contra la Candida albicans.

Introduction: Dichrostachys cinerea L. (marabou) is a plant that grows in Cuba, medicinal properties of this plant are being studied. The resistance of yeasts of the Candida genus to current available synthetic antifungals is increasingly greater. This is why, new compounds of plant origin are being searched for the effective treatment of infections caused by this germ. Objective: To evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of Dichrostachys cinerea L against a strain of Candida albicans. Methods: An in vitro a cross-sectional analytic observational study was carried out to evaluate the antifungal activity of fluid extracts of D. cinerea L leaves and stems using the broth macro-dilution method and alcohol as the reference substance. Results: Through the process was shown the antifungal activity of the fluid extract of Dichrostachys cinerea L. stems at 50% up to the 1/32 dilution; it was determined as the minimum inhibitory concentration. The leaves fluid extract at 30% failed to inhibit the growth of the Candida albicans ATCC 10231 strain. Conclusions: The antifungal activity of the fluid extract at 50% of the leaves was effective, but not the pharmaceutical preparation at 30%. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the fluid extract of leaves at 50% was determined and it was shown that it exceeded that of alcohol at 50% in three dilutions against Candida albicans.