Reflection on the Current Situation of Inheritance, Protection and Development of Folk Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shaanxi Province / 中国医学伦理学

In recent years, the State has intensified efforts to develop folk Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Shaanxi Province is a large province with rich TCM resources. However, the certificate holding rate of folk TCM in Shaanxi is low, the inheritance of medical skills is not optimistic; the core skills of folk TCM are lack of protection; the traditional folk diagnosis and treatment technology is lack of corresponding standards, and the clinical promotion is difficult, which makes the advantages of folk TCM not fully play. It was suggested that strengthen the assessment of Shaanxi Province’s real expertise, take measures to promote the inheritance, enhance the intellectual property protection of folk TCM in the province, intensify the research and formulation of local folk TCM screening and evaluation standards, and vigorously promote the clinical application of folk TCM in the province, so as to promote the inheritance, protection and development of folk TCM in Shaanxi Province.

Cigarette Smoking Preferentially Affects Intracranial Vessels in Young Males: A Propensity-Score Matching Analysis / 신경중재치료의학

PURPOSE: Cigarette smoking (CS) is one of the major risk factors of cerebral atherosclerotic disease, however, its level of contribution to extracranial and intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ECAS and ICAS) was not fully revealed yet. The purpose of our study was to assess the association of CS to cerebral atherosclerosis along with other risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All consecutive patients who were angiographically confirmed with severe symptomatic cerebral atherosclerotic disease between January 2002 and December 2012 were included in this study. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors for ECAS and ICAS. Thereafter, CS group were compared to non-CS group in the entire study population and in a propensity-score matched population with two different age-subgroups. RESULTS: Of 1709 enrolled patients, 794 (46.5%) had extracranial (EC) lesions and the other 915 (53.5%) had intracranial (IC) lesions. CS group had more EC lesions (55.8% vs. 35.3%, P<0.001) whereas young age group (<50 years) had more IC lesion (84.5% vs. 47.6%, P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, seven variables including CS, male, old age, coronary heart disease, higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, multiple lesions, and anterior lesion were independently associated with ECAS. In the propensity-score matched CS group had significant more EC lesion compared to non-CS group (65.7% vs. 47.9%) only in the old age subgroup. CONCLUSION: In contrast to a significant association between CS and severe symptomatic ECAS shown in old population, young patients did not show this association and showed relatively higher preference of ICAS.