Objective To systematically review the benefits and risks of more intensive versus less intensive blood pressure control in Asian elderly patients over 60 years old. Methods The PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of intensive versus less blood pressure control from inception to August 2022. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of 6 RCTs involving 20 701 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that intensive blood pressure control could reduce the incidence of cardiovascular death, stroke, and heart failure. However, it could not reduce the incidence of all-cause death and myocardial infarction. Subgroup analysis showed that systolic blood pressure greater than 140 mmHg could not reduce the incidence of cardiovascular death. The safety evaluation found no increase in adverse events or renal injury in intensive blood pressure control group. Conclusion The current evidence shows that intensive blood pressure control can reduce the incidence of cardiovascular death, stroke and heart failure events in elderly Asian patients over 60 years old, but it has no effect on all-cause mortality and myocardial infarction events. It has good safety. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Natural language processing (NLP) is the embodiment of computer intelligence in acquiring knowledge, understanding, processing and expressing consciously and actively. It is the scientific key to promoting the informatization of medical practice and research. This paper reviews the development history and research basis of NLP, and focuses on the current application of NLP and large language models in biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), including the intelligent reading, information extraction and feedback of medical texts and ancient books of TCM, as well as the construction of medical knowledge graph and question-answering system. NLP is the technical support to explore the treasure house of TCM, which is of great practical significance to further promote the development of efficient and high-quality core values of TCM and to improve the service capacity.
This article introduced the structure and features of the medical safety and quality management system of New South Wales (NSW) of Australia. The system was funded by government with overall design, multi-sectors involvement, and explicit roles of government, hospitals, and independent third parties. The system also developed national and state-wide regulations, policies, standards and their certification. The NSW Health Incident Information Management System (IIMS), the guidelines and interventional programs were also established to decrease the medical risk and ensure the healthcare quality. This system will be used for reference to the national medical risk and quality management system of China.
This study is to provide reference for the proper understanding of the content of " Promoting innovation and access to quality, safe, efficacious, and affordable medicines for children” resolution of 69th World Health Assembly (WHA), and facilitate the policy making and implication of the Resolution. Through descriptive analysis, the author introduce the proposal background and approving process of the resolution, and interpret the resolution content. The approval of " Promoting innovation and access to quality, safe, efficacious, and affordable medicines for children” at WHA represents China's international discourse right on improving the basic medical service among children, the most vulnerable population; highlights China's responsibility and magnitude of a great nation. It is an effective promotion for China's new medical reform and the implication of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as a great contribution to the global health of children from China.
ObjectiveTo investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of proximal tibial hemiprosthesis replacement in the first stage and prosthesis revision in the second stage in reducing the risk of length discrepancy of limbs in children with proximal tibial osteosarcoma.MethodsBetween 2009 and 2013, 3 children with conventional osteosarcoma at the proximal tibia (stage ⅡB) were treated. There were 2 boys and 1 girl. They were 12, 13, and 13 years old, respectively. After 4 courses of preoperative chemotherapy, the proximal tumor segmental resection and proximal tibial hemiprosthesis replacement were performed. Then the patients underwent prosthetic revision in the second stage when they were 20, 17, and 17 years old, respectively.ResultsAll patients successfully completed two stages of operations. The length discrepancy of lower limb after the second stage operation were 19, 7, and 21 mm, respectively. Three patients were followed up 13, 3, and 27 months after the second stage operation, and the lower extremities functions were satisfactory. The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) score was 26, 27, and 25, respectively.ConclusionThe proximal tibial hemiprosthesis replacement in the first stage combined with prosthesis revision in the second stage for treating the proximal tibia osteosarcoma in children can keep the distal femur growth ability, reduce the length discreapancy of lower limb, and obtain satisfactory stability and good function.
ObjectiveTo report the preliminary clinical results and analyze the prognostic factors of prosthetic failures with non-cemented modular prosthetic reconstruction after tumor resection in lower extremities.MethodsA clinical data of 150 patients with lower extremity tumors treated with MEGASYSTEM-C non-cemented modular prosthetic reconstruction between October 2011 and September 2016 was retrospectively analyzed. There were 88 males and 62 females, aged from 12 to 81 years, with a median age of 24 years. According to World Health Organization (WHO) classification of bone tumors, 120 cases were primary malignant tumors, 27 cases were intermediate tumors, and 3 cases were metastatic tumors. Among them, 134 cases underwent primary operation and 16 cases underwent reoperation after recurrence. Eighty-seven patients with malignant tumors received chemotherapy before and after operation, and no patient received local radiotherapy during perioperative period. Proximal femur was reconstructed in 32 cases, distal femur in 83 cases, and proximal tibia in 35 cases. The postoperative follow-up time, the results of oncology (survival status and tumor recurrence), and prosthesis failure (prosthesis survival rate, reasons for failure, treatment plan after failure) were recorded. The reason of the prosthesis failure was classified into 5 types according to the classification defined by Henderson et al. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Log-Rank test were used to analyze patient and prosthesis survival. Lower extremity function was assessed by using the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) scoring system and MSTS scores were compared for patients with different reconstruction sites.ResultsAll patients were followed up 5-84 months, the median follow-up time was 39 months. During the follow-up period, there were 116 cases of tumor-free survival, 10 cases of tumor-bearing survival, and 24 died of lung metastasis or multiple metastases. The 3-year and 5-year survival rates of 120 patients with primary malignant tumors were 83.1% and 76.6%. There was no significant difference in survival rate between different reconstruction sites (P=0.851). Seven cases (4.7%) had local recurrence at 7-21 months after operation. The 3-year and 5-year survival rates of the prosthesis in 150 patients were 94.4% and 92.5%. There was no significant difference in survival rate between different reconstruction sites (P=0.765). There were 26 failures in 24 patients (16.0%) during the follow-up period. There were 9 cases of type 1 failure, 1 case of type 2 failure, 3 cases of type 3 failure, 5 cases of type 4 failure, and 8 cases of type 5 failure. At last follow-up, 120 of the 126 patients survived without prosthetic failure. Except that the influence of different parts of prosthesis on the incidence of type 4 failure (P=0.029), the influence of chemotherapy on the incidence of type 5 failure (P=0.002) were significant, the influence of other types of failure on different reconstructed parts of prosthesis, initial operation, and perioperative chemotherapy had no significant difference (P>0.05). There were 5 cases of amputation (4 cases of type 5 failure, 1 case of type 4 failure), 3 cases of prosthesis removal (1 case of type 2 failure, 1 case of type 3 failure, 1 case of type 4 failure), 3 cases of revision while keeping the original prosthesis (2 cases of type 1 failure, 1 case of type 5 failure). The overall MSTS score was 24±3. The MSTS scores were 24±3, 25±3, and 23±3 in patients whose reconstruction sites located in proximal femur, distal femur, and proximal tibia, respectively, showing no significant difference (F=3.014, P=0.052).ConclusionThe short-term follow-up showed a lower incidence of complications and good function for MEGASYSTEM-C non-cement modular prosthesis system in treatment of bone defects after lower limb tumor resection. The main factors affecting the early survival of prosthesis were tumor progression and infection.
The prominent feature and form of clinical diagnosis and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine is individualization, which has generated difficulty for clinical evaluation and has restricted the production of high-level evidence for traditional Chinese medicine for a long time. Based on the complexity and dynamics of individualized information under the characteristics of time and space, this paper references the theory of space-time of system science to analyze the individualized data of diagnosis and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine and summarizes the concept of the long time course for clinical evaluation. Based on the concept of the long time course, this paper starts with the origin of clinical evaluation, which is the construction of clinical problem elements named PICO, introduces dynamic evaluation factors, explores the construction of individualized dynamic evaluation method of traditional Chinese medicine, and provides demonstration and examples for the design and implementation of individualized clinical research in future.
It is crucial to select outcomes in clinical trials. Appropriate outcomes can improve value and significance of trials and reduce the cost of investment. This paper describes how to develop core outcome sets and core outcome measurement instrument sets with the theory of mixed methods research, so as to standardize the choice of outcomes and outcome measurement instruments in clinical trials.
Master protocol is a great transformation of clinical trials with complete research network, reasonable design and innovative statistical analysis methods. It is a highly efficient new model of clinical trials which could obtain more medical information with less clinical resources. Clinical researches in the field of oncology using master protocol have already made delightful achievements. This paper introduces the design of clinical trials on angina pectoris of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and heart failure for instance and discusses the application of master protocol to clinical researches of Traditional Chinese Medicine combined with the differentiation of syndromes and treatments. We expect to provide new ideas and methods for the design of master protocol on diseases with similary syndrome pattern series of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Core outcome set (COS) is an agreed and minimal set of outcomes that should be measured and reported in all clinical trials in specific areas of health or healthcare, which can reduce the heterogeneity of outcomes in similar clinical trials, so that much more trials can merge in systematic reviews. Meanwhile, using COS may be easy to identify potential selective reporting bias in clinical trials. The research of COS has been developed for more than 30 years in western countries. At present there are much more researchers focusing on this area in China. However the status and progress of COS remain unclear. This paper reviewed the quantity of COS, the disease distributions of COS, the geographical locations involved in the development of COS, as well as the methodological progress of COS, so as to clarify the general situation of COS.