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OBJECTIVES: To explore the efficacy and safety of tetrandrine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: Randomized controlled studies of tetrandrine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis were searched in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), World Wide Web Database, SinoMed, PubMed, Springer, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails database. A meta-analysis was conducted using R software version 3.5.3 to evaluate the clinical outcomes, including the total effective rate, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF), visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, disease activity score (DAS), tender joint count (TJC), swollen joint count (SJC), and morning stiffness duration, as well as adverse events of RA patients. RESULTS: A total of 10 articles were included in the study. The meta-analysis indicated that tetrandrine significantly improved the total effective rate (OR=3.27, 95%CI: 2.01-5.37, P<0.01), ESR (SMD=1.12, 95%CI: 0.06-2.19, P<0.05), CRP (SMD=0.75, 95%CI: 0.28-1.22, P<0.01), VAS (SMD=0.55, 95%CI: 0.21-0.89, P<0.01), SJC (SMD=0.85, 95%CI: 0.40-1.31, P<0.01), TJC (SMD=1.16, 95%CI: 0.58-1.74, P<0.01), and morning stiffness (SMD=1.09, 95%CI: 0.68-1.50, P<0.01). However, no statistical significance was found in RF (SMD=1.70, 95%CI: ï¼1.10-4.51, P>0.05) and DAS (SMD=0.26, 95%CI: ï¼0.59-1.11, P>0.05). The overall incidence of adverse events associated with tetrandrine treatment for rheumatoid arthritis was 20% (95%CI: 12%-27%, I2=60%, P<0.05), with mild severity and favorable outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Tetrandrine is effective in the treatment of RA patients with a mild degree of adverse events.
ABSTRACT
The Acknowledgement section of the original publication gave a wrong grant number. The correct Acknowledgement should read.
ABSTRACT
Nuclear male sterility (NMS) is a potential characteristic in crop recurrent selection and hybrid breeding. Mapping of nuclear male-sterile genes is key to utilizing NMS. Previously, we discovered a spontaneous soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) male-sterile female-fertile mutant NJS-13H, which was conferred by a single recessive gene, designated msNJ. In this study, the msNJ was mapped to Chromosome 10 (LG O), and narrowed down between two SSR (simple sequence repeats) markers, BARCSOYSSR_10_794 and BARCSOYSSR_10_819 using three heterozygote-derived segregating populations, i.e., (NJS-13H × NN1138-2)F2, (NJS-13H × N2899)F2 and (NJS-13H)SPAG (segregating populations in advanced generations). This region spans approximately 1.32 Mb, where 27 genes were annotated according to the soybean reference genome sequence (Wm82.a2.v1). Among them, four genes were recognized as candidate genes for msNJ. Comparing to the physical locations of all the known male-sterile loci, msNJ is demonstrated to be a new male-sterile locus. This result may help the utilization and cloning of the gene.
Subject(s)
Chromosome Mapping , Genes, Plant , Glycine max/genetics , Plant Infertility/genetics , Genes, Recessive , Microsatellite RepeatsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mortality in patients with peritoneal dialysis (PD). METHODS: A total of 1737 patients with terminal renal diseases under PD in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 2008 to 2016 were enrolled. Patients were followed up for 33.0(19.3, 52.4) months. The mean arterial pressure over the first 3 months of PD therapy were calculated. All-cause death and cardiovascular death were assessed using Cox regression models adjusted for demographics, laboratory measurements, comorbid conditions and antihypertensive medications. RESULTS: During the follow-up, 208 patients died, among which 95(45.7%) patients died of cardiovascular causes. Compared with patients with MAP >95-<120 mmHg, patients with MAP ≤ 95 mmHg were associated with significantly higher risk of all-cause death (HR=1.40,95%CI:1.01-1.93,P<0.05); patients with MAP ≥ 120 mmHg were associated with significantly higher risk of all-cause (HR=2.12,95%CI:1.32-3.40, P<0.01) and cardiovascular morality (HR=2.55, 95%CI:1.38-4.70, P<0.01). MAP presents a U-shaped association with all-cause mortality and a J-shaped association with cardiovascular mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Both high MAP and low MAP are associated with higher risk of mortality in PD patients.
Subject(s)
Arterial Pressure , Kidney Failure, Chronic , Peritoneal Dialysis , Humans , Kidney Failure, Chronic/mortality , Kidney Failure, Chronic/pathology , Renal Dialysis , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Determination of the sensitivity of a transducer is essential in evaluating its central frequency and effective bandwidth, its electroacoustic conversion capability, or the measurement ability of an ultrasonic test system. In this work, a calibration method based on self-reciprocity is proposed for the determination of transducer sensitivity, which can be applied to both planar and focused transducers. The two-port electrical network of the experimental setup is analyzed, and a simplified measurement procedure is described in which the "impedance mismatch" problem is solved, and only input and output currents are needed. An acoustic transfer function is introduced, both to reduce the effects of wave energy loss on the determination of transducer sensitivity and to help extract the effective geometrical parameters of the transducer through these measured output current signals. The effects of diffraction, attenuation, and effective geometrical parameters on sensitivity determination are discussed in this work; the experimental results show that when all these factors are taken into account, accurate sensitivities for both planar and focused transducers can be obtained at various experimental distances.
