ABSTRACT
Purpose: Pain is a common yet undertreated symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study investigated the effect of Gua Sha therapy on pain in patients with PD. Patients and Methods: A total of 56 PD patients with pain were randomized into either the experimental group (n=28), receiving 12 sessions of Gua Sha therapy, or the control group (n=28) without additional treatment. Participants underwent assessment at baseline, after the twelfth invention, and at the 2-month follow-up timepoints. The primary outcome was KPPS and VAS. Secondary outcomes included UPDRS I-III, PDSS-2, HADS, PDQ-39, and blood biomarkers (5-HT, IL-8, IL-10). Results: The experimental group reported a significant improvement in pain severity, motor functions, affective disorder, and sleep quality (P < 0.05). Furthermore, increasing trends in both 5-HT and IL-10, as well as decreasing trends in IL-8 were observed. No serious adverse events occurred. Conclusion: The preliminary findings suggest that Gua Sha therapy may be effective and safe for alleviating pain and improving other disease-related symptoms in PD patients.
ABSTRACT
Aim: We conducted a systematic review of high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced leukopenia (CIL). Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched from the date of inception to November 4, 2020 for high-quality RCTs that met the requirements of at least four key domains of the Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) tool. RevMan 5.3 was applied for the meta-analysis. Results: Fourteen RCTs involving 1,053 patients were included. The pooled results showed that CHM + chemotherapy exerted greater beneficial effects on white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil (NEU), hemoglobin (Hb), and platelet (PLT) counts in addition to the Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) score, but showed no significant difference on granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) dosage compared with chemotherapy alone. Placebo (PBO) + chemotherapy and CHM + chemotherapy groups showed no significant differences in terms of reduction of the incidence of neutropenia. CHM + chemotherapy was superior to Western medicine (WM) + chemotherapy in improving the WBC count, KPS, infection amount, G-CSF use rate, and incidence of leukopenia. In addition, no severe adverse events were observed in the 14 RCTs. Conclusion: CHM in combination with chemotherapy could effectively improve the clinical symptoms of CIL when compared with chemotherapy alone or Western medicine + chemotherapy, except when comparing with PBO + chemotherapy. While CHMs were generally safe for clinical use and exerted no severe side effects in the 14 RCTs, high-quality RCTs with larger sample sizes are essential to reduce study heterogeneity.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of removal of ligation thread combined adenoidectomy in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) after velopharyngeal ring ligation procedure (VRLP). METHODS: The upper airway was examined with dynamic fiberoptic pharyngoscope in six patients with cleft palate who were diagnosed as OSAHS by polysomnography(PSG) after VRLP. All the patients underwent removal of ligation thread and adenoidectomy. Three months after operation, they were recalled back and were examined with polysomnography and dynamic fiberoptic pharyngoscope. The preoperative and postoperative PSG data were analysed with t test and chi-square test to determine the statistical differences. RESULTS: In patients with OSAHS after VRLP, a ring scar was observed on the upper airway at the soft palate level and a remarkable narrow nasopharyngeal meatus was found mainly because of adenoidal hypertrophy. After removal of ligation thread and adenoidectomy, no velopharyngeal incompetence was found, the upper airway morphology was smooth, respiration disorder during sleeping was completely disappeared and sleep architecture became normal. There were significant differences between preoperative and postoperative PSG data. CONCLUSION: Removal of ligation thread combined adenoidectomy was an effective treatment for OSAHS after VRLP.
