Tai Chi for improving cardiopulmonary function and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of Tai Chi on cardiopulmonary function and quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. DATA SOURCES: Cochrane Library, PUBMED, EMBASE, China Biology Medicine disc, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang database. METHODS: Articles on randomized controlled trials comparing Tai Chi with other treatments or no treatment were identified. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Fifteen articles involving 1354 participants were included. Compared with the control group, Tai Chi was more effective in improving exercise capacity on 6-minute walking distance (short term: MD = 16.02, 95% CI 2.86 to 29.17; mid term: MD = 30.90, 95% CI 6.88 to 54.93; long term: MD = 24.63, 95% CI 2.30 to 46.95), as well as pulmonary functions on forced expiratory volume in the first second (mid term: MD = 0.10; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.19), and forced vital capacity (mid term: MD = 0.20; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.36). Concerning quality of life, we found Tai Chi was better than the control group for the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire dyspnoea score (short term: MD = 0.90; 95% CI 0.51 to 1.29), fatigue score (short term: MD = 0.75; 95% CI 0.42 to 1.09), and total score (short term: MD = 1.92; 95% CI 0.54 to 3.31). CONCLUSIONS: Tai Chi may improve exercise capacity in the short, mid, and long terms. However, no significant long term differences in pulmonary function and quality of life were observed for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Flow-injection on-line oxidizing fluorimetry and solid phase extraction for determination of thioridazine hydrochloride in human plasma.

A simple, sensitive and specific fluorimetric method has been developed for the determination of thioridazine hydrochloride in human plasma involving solid phase extraction (SPE). In a flow-injection system, thioridazine hydrochloride is on-line oxidized into a strongly fluorescent compound with a lead dioxide solid-phase reactor and the fluorescence intensity is measured with a fluorescence detector (lambda(ex)=349nm, lambda(em)=429nm). A comparison of plasma sample pretreatment between SPE procedure and precipitation method was made and the results showed that SPE procedure was better than precipitation method. Under the optimum conditions, the fluorescence intensity is proportional to the concentration of thioridazine hydrochloride in the range from 0.015 to 2.000microg mL(-1). The detection limit is 5.5ng mL(-1) of thioridazine hydrochloride and the relative standard deviation is 1.06%. This method has been applied to determination of thioridazine hydrochloride in real patients plasma samples with the results compared with those obtained by HPLC method.