Objective To study the clinical characteristics of mulifocal motor neuropathy. Methods Patients records in China Biological Medicine Database (CBM-disc 1980-2005)and WanFang Database were searched. Demographic data, clinical manifestations, electrophysiology, and laboratory findings on multifocal motor neuropathy were analyzed. Results Of the total 80 patients, 61 cases were males, and 19 were females. A single limb weakness began in all the patients. Weakness was usually accentuated distally(95.3%), accompanied by muscle amyotrophy(76.3%) and fasciculation(46.3%). Reflexes were reduced (96.4%). Sensory impairment and cranial involvement were rare. 92.1% of the patients showed conduction block of motor nerve. Results Of the total 80 patients, 61 cases were males, and 19 were females. A single limb weakness began in all the patients. Weakness was usually accentuated distally(95.3%), accompanied by muscle amyotrophy(76.3%) and fasciculation(46.3%). Reflexes were reduced (96.4%). Sensory impairment and cranial involvement were rare. 92.1% of the patients showed conduction block of motor nerve. Conclusions Clinical features about multifocal motor neuropathy are a single distal limb weakness, muscle amyotrophy, and conduction block of motor nerve. MMN should be differentiated from motor neuron disease and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.
Objective To investigate and analyze the past and on-going pro-poor programs related to health equity, and the relevant policies, documents, interventions measures, etc. to improve the China prisoners’ accessibility and utilization of tuberculosis (TB) control services in TB control programs, then evaluate their impacts and influences to provide evidences and suggestions for the further work of TB prevention and treatment. Methods Retrieve published documents about TB prevention and treatment of transient population dating from 1998 to 2008 from MEDLINE, PubMed, CNKI, CBMdisc CDDB and VIP with computers. Simultaneously, a series of interviews was conducted after we got the agreement of the interview people by using non-probability statistics methods. Results A total of 23 documents were retrieved, and they were consonant with the criteria, among which 8 were published and 5 were policy documents. The study on the second document showed the measures that presently applied on TB patients among prisoners in China: find patients through surveys, inspect every prisons and patients going to visit doctors with symptoms; concerning differences between various groups of prisoners, the measure of “classify and instruction, enroll together and treat” was applied; carry out health education in the prisons and so on. After the implement of various measures, the knowledge awareness, discovery rate, accomplishment ratio, cure rate and so on were all improved. The results of the qualitative interviews showed: the TB patients and the doubts among prisoners could be well gotten together and isolated to receive DOTS; doctors were able to receive trainings on TB treatment and take appointment with certificate. Conclusion According to the results of qualitative interviews, the published and the secondary documents, it could be seen that DOTS are well implemented with remarkable effects.
Objectives We aimed to assess the methodological qual ity of RCT on acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis. Methods With the searching terms including acupuncture, migraine, prophylaxis and prevent, etc, the database of the Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2007), MEDLINE (1966-2007), EMBase (1966-2007), CBM (1978-2007) and CMCC (1994-2007) were searched from their date of start publ ication. Chinese medical journals and relevant academic conference proceedings were hand searched as well. Several items in included trials were assessed, including methodology, diagnostic criteria, inclusion/exclusion criteria, acupuncture/control interventions, outcome measures and follow-up, etc. Result Among the 12 included trials, 9 trials overseas were high-qual ity and 3 in China were low-quality. Frequency or days of migraine attacks and SF-36/SF-12 were often evaluated as outcome measures in western countries, while headache index was used in China. Among the 12 trials, 9 reported the follow-up outcomes and 8 mentioned adverse events. Conclusion There was no high qual ity trial on acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis in China. The outcome measures in trials published in China by now can not evaluate the outcomes of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis accurately. To study designs, advantages of trials oversea can be used for reference. To Chinese cl inical physicians, prophylactic therapy and abortive therapy of migraine should be distinguished in order to design high-qual ity study on acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis.
Systematic reviews can provide important evidence support for clinical practice and health decision-making. In this process, literature screening and data extraction are extensively time-consuming procedures. Natural language processing (NLP), as one of the research directions of computer science and artificial intelligence, can accelerate the process of literature screening and data extraction in systematic reviews. This paper introduced the requirements of systematic reviews for rapid literature screening and data extraction, the development of NLP and types of machine learning; and systematically collated the NLP tools for the title and abstract screening, full-text screening and data extraction in systematic reviews; and discussed the problems in the application of NLP tools in the field of systematic reviews and proposed a prospect for its future development.
Objective To assess the quality reports on acupuncture in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia. Methods MEDLINE, CBM, CMCC and CNKI from 1994 to 2006 were searched electronically. Handsearching was also done. The retrieved articles were assessed in terms of several factors, including the type of clinical research, methodology, diagnostic criteria, inclusion/exclusion criteria, effectiveness measurements, calculation of sample size, follow-up, etc. Results Among the 109 included articles, only 6 were true randomized controlled trials. There were 17 quasi-randomized controlled trials, 13 non-randomized concurrent controlled trials, 1 case-control study and 63 narrative studies. 29 of the reports clearly described the diagnostic criteria, 14 mentioned the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 79 reported the effectiveness measurements, none mentioned the calculation of sample size, 24 reported the follow-up outcomes, and only 1 mentioned adverse reactions. Conclusion More prospective, multicenter, large-scale, high-quality randomised trials are needed, and recommendations should also be made for future evaluations of methodological quality.
Objective To collect and analyze published experimental and clinical studies about the protective function of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) to organs, in order to learn the history of IPC, the progress of experimental as well as clinical studies, and explore the mechanism of IPC in organ transplantation. Methods The electronic search of MEDLINE (1966 to Aug. 2009), EMbase (1974 to Aug. 2009) and The Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2009) were performed to include and exclude the retrieved articles by two reviewers independently. The included studies were further treated for analysis and discriptive review. Results A total of 1 398 papers were included, of which about 75 percent were experimental studies, and only about 25 percent were clinical studies. About 73 percent studies focused on the heart and liver. Althrough the studies about the effects induced by IPC on the heart, brain, spinal cord and liver increased obviously in recent years, the clinical studies concerned the heart and liver operation and transplantation still far lagged behind experimental studies, especially very few clinical studies on the effect induced by IPC on kidney, lung, gastrointestinal tract and pancreas. Conclusion IPC intervention can effectively protect the heart and lung from the I/RI during the surgical and transplatational operations, and the hepat-surgical and living liver transplantational operations. IPC can effectively protect the brain and spinal cord from I/RI, but no protective function to cadaveric liver transplantation. However, the IPC effects on the kidney and gastrointestinal tract are not confirmed and neither is the mechanism of the effect induced by IPC.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the reporting quality of systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses on acupuncture focusing on literature screening results and explore the influencing factors of the complete reporting.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, CNKI, WanFang Data, and VIP databases were searched to collect SRs/meta-analyses on acupuncture from inception to December 31st, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and evaluated the reporting quality of literature screening results of SRs/meta-analyses on acupuncture based on PRISMA statement. Logistic regression model analysis was applied to explore the influencing factors of the complete reporting rate of literature screening results. Statistical analysis was performed by using Excel 2016 and SPSS 16.0 software.ResultsA total of 1 227 SRs/meta-analyses were included. Only 62.3% SRs fully reported the four parts of literature screening results. The parts with a low reporting rate included the number of studies assessed for eligibility (73.2%) and the reasons for exclusions at each stage (67.0%). And the reporting rate of the literature screening flowchart was also low (63.6%). The reporting rate of literature screening results in Chinese SRs was lower than that in English SRs, and there was significantly statistical difference (P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the type of published journal, publication year, pages of article and the number of searched databases were correlated with the complete reporting rate of literature screening results (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe complete reporting rate of the literature screening results of SRs on acupuncture is low, especially in Chinese SRs. The complete reporting rate of literature screening results is significantly higher for SRs published after PRISMA statement, in SCI journals, with longer length and more searched databases.
ObjectiveTo analyze the clinical features, laboratory examination, imaging findings, treatment and outcome of influenza A H1N1 virus infection in China, so as to improve the clinicians' understanding of the disease.MethodsOne patient with influenza A H1N1 pneumonia was reported in this hospital. The databases of CNKI, VIP network and Wanfang data were systematically consulted. After removing the duplicate and deleting the incomplete literature published between January 1989 and August 2019, 62 literatures were included, involving 880 patients. Hence, 881 patients in total were included. The clinical manifestations, laboratory examination, imaging manifestations, treatment and prognosis were analyzed.ResultsThere were 477 males and 404 females, aged from 50 days to 86 years old, with an average age of (20.4 ±10.0) years. The most common clinical symptoms were fever (99.4%, 876/881), followed by cough (85.0%, 749/881), expectoration (38.1%, 336/881), sore throat (37.0%, 326/881) and dyspnea (33.7%, 297/881), asthenia and general pain (33.5%, 295/881) and so on. Laboratory examination in the leukocyte decreased in 249 patients (28.3%), neutrophil increased in 143 patients (16.2%) and leukocyte increased in 141 patients (16.0%). Myocardial injury was found in 370 patients (42.0%), liver injury in 303 patients (34.4%) and renal insufficiency in 84 patients (9.5%). The main imaging manifestations were spotted, patchy or flaky shadows (41.8%, 362/866) in varying degrees, with consolidation shadows (19.3%, 167/866), thickening of lung texture (11.3%, 98/866), ground glass shadows (4.5%, 39/866), and pleural effusion (5.5%, 48/866). The most common treatments were anti-virus, anti-infection, anti-inflammation, mechanical ventilation and symptomatic support. Comprehensive treatment resulted good effects. There were 37 deaths and the mortality rate was 4.2%. The main cause of death was respiratory failure.ConclusionsInfluenza A H1N1 virus infection is a preventable, controllable and treatable infectious disease, which is similar to the general influenza virus. After active comprehensive treatment, most of the influenza A (H1N1) can be cured and the prognosis is benign.
Objective To provide references for production and dissemination of evidence in the fields of medical emergency management, treatment, and prevention of epidemics after May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake by systematically reviewing, analyzing, and comparing quake related papers in medical journals. Methods We systematically searched MEDLINE and CBM (Chinese Biomedical Literature) databases (range: from inception to Sept. 2009). Quake related papers were imported into EndNote software, checked for duplication, and categorized by predefined standards. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 13.0. Results There were relatively fewer quake related articles globally before the occurrence of the Wenchuan earthquake, and the quantity of papers in MEDLINE was four times than that in CBM. In contrast, the quantity of Chinese quake articles increased rapidly after Wenchuan earthquake, peaking in Aug. 2008 at 6.9 times the average during the 50 years before the quake. The quake related papers in CBM appeared in 378 journals covering a diverse range of subject matter. Meanwhile, there was little change in the quantity of quake related articles in MEDLINE database. Conclusions The effort of producing and disseminating Wenchuan earthquake related medical research has been effectively organized and conducted in a scientific and timely manner, producing the largest in number of quake related medical papers in human history. It has provided first-hand guidance for disaster medical relief around the globe. We should strengthen the systematic construction of disaster medicine, and make an effort to summarize and disseminate evidence in the fields of rehabilitation, system reestablishment, and prevention of epidemics.
With the flourishing career of scientific research, the number of medical literature is in the explosion of growth. According to the statistics revealed by the Royal Society in March 2011, it showed that the proportion of published literature in China increased from 4.4% at the beginning of this century to 12.2%, and leaped into the second rank of the world. But the citations lagged behind the growth in number. In addition, the quality of medical literature relates to the reliability of results. Therefore, how to evaluate and improve the quality of medical literature is important. This paper will present some evaluation methods of credible medical literatures.