Cardiac Manifestations of Sarcopenia.

OBJECTIVES: Screening questions for sarcopenia used in the community (SARC-F) may be regarded as indicators of exercise tolerance. DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: We tested the hypothesis that community-living older people who are screened positive for sarcopenia using the SARC-F tool but without a history of heart failure (HF) have a higher prevalence of cardiac abnormalities compared with those who are SARC-F negative. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were recruited from a territory-wide primary care needs assessment for older people based in community centres, and from non-acute hospitals in the same region as the study centre. MEASUREMENTS: Participants with a total score of >=4 and who did not have any history of HF were invited to attend for further cardiac assessment. Grip strength, walking speed, and the 6-minute walk test and echocardiography were carried out. Patients with frailty and at least Grade II diastolic dysfunction were considered to have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) if they also had concomitant elevated N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) of at least 300 pg/ml. RESULTS: Diastolic dysfunction (DD) was significantly associated with SARC-F score >=4 and higher circulating NT-proBNP levels. ROC curves evaluating the predictive values of SARC-F, HGS and gait speed for DD showed that a combination of SARC-F and HGS or gait speed provided significant incremental value in predicting DD. CONCLUSIONS: Community living older people with sarcopenia detected using a simple questionnaire have a higher prevalence of DD accompanied by elevated NT proBNP. Addition of hand grip strength or walking speed improve the magnitude of the association. SARC-F may be used as a tool to detect early cardiac dysfunction in the community.

Utility of the FRAIL Questionnaire in Detecting Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction.

OBJECTIVE: To test the utility of the FRAIL questionnaire as a screening tool for heart failure. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Chinese older people in Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS: Participants aged 60 years and over were recruited from a territory-wide primary care needs assessment for older people based in community centers as well as two nonacute hospitals. MEASUREMENTS: Questionnaire administered included the five-item FRAIL scale, and information regarding sociodemographic data, smoking and alcohol use, history of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and heart failure symptoms. Handgrip strength, walking speed and 6 minute walk distance were recorded. Cardiac assessment included electrocardiogram, echocardiography, and blood assay for N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). RESULTS: The prevalence of diastolic dysfunction was high, being 52% in the robust group, increasing to 65% in the pre-frail and 85% in the frail group. This finding is accompanied by a corresponding increase in NT-proBNP from 64.18 pg/ml in the robust group, to 118.57 pg/ml in the pre-frail and 167.98 pg/ml in the frail group. Three of the five components of the FRAIL scale, fatigue, resistance and ambulation, were associated with increased odds ratios of diastolic dysfunction among those aged 75 years and older, while resistance alone was associated with increased odds ratio among those less than 75 years old. CONCLUSION: Frailty is associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and frailty screening may be used to detect undiagnosed HFpEF. The findings support the proposal that HFpEF be considered a geriatric syndrome.

Efficacy of Yun Zhi (Coriolus versicolor) on survival in cancer patients: systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: Patients with cancer frequently use herbs along with the conventional medical treatment, hoping to enhance recovery. Mushrooms have an established history of use in traditional oriental therapies. In Asian cultures, mushrooms are combined with herbal mixtures to treat cancer. This systematic review and meta-analysis draw from randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials to assess the efficacy of Yun Zhi (YZ) for survival in cancer patients. MATERIAL & METHODS: Systematic review and meta-analysis technique were used to aggregate and analyze the efficacy of Yun Zhi on survival in cancer patients from 13 clinical trials using computerized database and manual search. RESULTS: The findings show that Yun Zhi results in a significant survival advantage compared with standard conventional anti-cancer treatment alone. Of patient randomized to Yun Zhi, there was a 9% absolute reduction in 5-year mortality, resulting in one additional patient alive for every 11 patients treated. In patients with breast cancer, gastric cancer, or colorectal cancer treated with chemotherapy, the effects of the combination of Yun Zhi preparation on the overall 5-year survival rate was more evident, but not in esophageal cancer and nasophayngeal carcinoma. However, subgroup analysis could not conclude which type of anti-cancer treatment may maximize the benefit from Yun Zhi. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis has provided strong evidence that Yun Zhi would have survival benefit in cancer patients, particularly in carcinoma of breast, gastric and colorectal. Nevertheless, the findings highlight the need for further evidence from prospective studies of outcome to guide future potential modifications of treatment regimes. Recent patents on the use of mushrooms for the treatment of cancer are also summarized in this review.

Placebo preparation for the proper clinical trial of herbal medicine--requirements, verification and quality control.

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) have been recognized as the gold standard for interventional clinical trials. In many clinical trials of herbal medicine, it is very difficult to create a quality placebo. To achieve the purpose of blinding, the characteristics of the real drug and placebo should be identical in color, appearance, smell and taste. The quality placebo should be identical to the real drug in physical form, sensory perception, packaging, and labeling, and it should have no pharmaceutical activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate a placebo capsule and its matching herbal medicine D&G capsule in physical form, chemical nature, appearance, packaging and labeling. The assessment results suggested that the placebo was satisfactory in these aspects. The results demonstrated that a placebo could be created for a RCT involving herbal medicine. This report also discusses the means to acquire patent.

Placebos used in clinical trials for Chinese herbal medicine.

One of the important components in randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is blinding. The gold standard of clinical trials is to achieve a double blind design. However, only a small number of randomized controlled trials in traditional Chinese medicine have been reported, most of them are of poor quality in methodology including placebo preparation and verification. The purpose of the article is to review the validity of placebo used in blinded clinical trials for Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in recent years and related patents. We searched the Wanfang Database (total of 827 Chinese journals of medicine and/or pharmacy, from 1999 to 2005) and 598 full-length articles related to placebo clinical trials were found. 77 placebo blinded clinical trials for Chinese medicine were extracted by manual search from the 598 articles. After reviewing the 77 full-length articles, we found that nearly half of the clinical trials did not pay attention to the physical quality of the testing drug and placebo and whether they were of comparable physical quality. The rest provided very limited placebo information so that blinding assurance could not be assumed. Only 2 articles (2.6%) specifically validated the comparability between the testing drug and the placebo. Researchers in Chinese medicine commonly ignored the quality of the placebo in comparison to the test drug. This may be causing bias in the clinical trials. Quality specifications and evaluation of the placebo should deserve special attention to reduce bias in randomized controlled trials in TCM study.