藏药白脉软膏治疗腰椎间盘突出症的疗效与安全性:一项多中心、随机、双盲、安慰剂对照试验方案

目的:评价白脉软膏在腰椎间盘突出症(lumbar disc herniation)患者中的疗效与安全性。方法:本研究设计了一项前瞻、随机、双盲、安慰剂对照的多中心临床试验方案。计划招募194例患者,按1:1的比例平均分配至试验组和对照组。患者将接受为期14天的白脉软膏或安慰剂的干预,随后进行为期1周的随访。通过视觉模拟评分法(visual analogue scale score)评估疼痛程度,日本骨科协会评估治疗分数(Japanese Orthopedic Association score)评估功能状态,Likert量表将用于评估麻木程度,此外还将记录应急处理的使用和对健康教育的依从情况。安全性评估将包括实验室检查和不良事件记录。讨论:这项试验将首次对白脉软膏在腰椎间盘突出症患者中进行临床疗效和安全性评价。使用安慰剂的优势在于排除因盲法不充分而导致的偏倚。为了避免由研究对象和研究者的主观因素引起的任何偏倚,对于结局评价者、数据管理人员、统计分析人员以及所有相关研究人员都将实施盲法。本试验结果将为腰椎间盘突出症的治疗以及白脉软膏的未来研究方向提供重要依据。

Manipulation for degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis:A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Objective: To assess the effectiveness and safety of manipulation intervention for degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis(DLS).Methods: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. A full-scale retrieval method was performed until February 1, 2021, including nine databases. The homogeneity of different studies was summarized using the Review Manager. The quality of studies was determined with the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool.The evidence quality was graded with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations approach.Results: A total of 6 studies involving 524 participants were included. The review demonstrated that manipulation has statistically significant improvements for treating DLS according to Japanese Orthopedic Association scores(mean difference, 3.76;95% confidence interval, 2.63 to 4.90;P <.001) and visual analog scale scores(mean difference,-1.50;95% confidence interval,-1.66 to-1.33;P <.001)compared to the control group. One study reported that the difference in the Oswestry Disability Index between the traction group and the combination of manipulation and traction group was statistically significant(P <.05), while another reported that manipulation treatment can significantly improve the lumbar spine rotation angle on X-ray images compared with the baseline data(P <.05). Moreover, the manipulation group(experimental group) had fewer adverse events than the lumbar traction group(control group).Conclusion: Manipulation intervention is more effective and safer for DLS. Nevertheless, large-scale randomized controlled trials are required to confirm the current conclusions.

Research progress of microRNA in prevention and treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head

In the 1980s,Feinbaum et al.first discovered miRNA in the development of worms and termed it as Lin-4.With the development of microbial science and continuous improvement in the gene sequencing technology,miRNA has been gradually gaining attention for intensive research in clinical medicine.Among these,one group of miRNAs has been confirmed to play fundamental roles in gene regulation in various orthopedics diseases,such as bone tumors,osteoarthritis,and rheumatoid arthritis.The study of miRNAs in the osteonecrosis of the femoral head(ONFH)can improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease.ONFH is an orthopedic disease that is the primary cause of disrupted blood supply to the femoral head and the main symptoms of bone and muscle dysfunction.Recent studies showed that miRNA played a major role in the regulation of the microcirculation of ONFH,damage and repair of blood vessels,local microcirculation dysfunction caused by other diseases,and apoptosis of bone cells.In this study,recent related research results of miRNA and ONFH were analyzed and summarized,and the prospective in the prevention and treatment of the disease was also discussed.

Booster Vaccination in Infancy Reduces the Incidence of Occult HBV Infection in Maternal HBsAg-positive Children

Background and Aims: Occult HBV infection (OBI) in chil-dren has proven to be associated with their immune re-sponse to hepatitis B vaccine (HepB). This study aimed to investigate the effect of a booster HepB on OBI, which is rarely investigated. Methods: This study enrolled 236 ma-ternal HBsAg-positive children who were followed up annu-ally until 8 years of age and were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative. Of those 100 received a booster HepB be-tween 1 and 3 years of age (booster group), and 136 were never boosted (non-booster group). Serial follow-up data of children and baseline data of their mothers were collected and between-group differences were analyzed. Results: The incidence of OBI varied dynamically during follow-up, with 37.14% (78/210), 19.09% (42/220), 20.85% (44/211), 31.61% (61/193), 8.65% (18/208) and 12.71% (30/236) at 7 months, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 years of age. At 8 years of age, the negative conversion rate of HBV DNA in the booster group was significantly higher than that in non-booster group [57.89% (11/19) vs. 30.51% (18/59), p=0.032]. For chil-dren without OBI at 7 months old, the incidence of OBI in booster group was significantly lower than that in non-boost-er group [25.64% (10/39) vs. 67.74% (63/93), p<0.001]. Conclusions: The incidence of OBI in maternal HBsAg-positive children was high, serum HBV DNA in children with OBI was intermittently positive at low levels, and a booster HepB in infancy reduced the incidence of OBI in children with HBsAg-positive mothers.

Erratum Enhancing THz fingerprint detection on the planar surface of an inverted dielectric metagrating:publisher's note

The Funding section in Ref.[1]originally reads as follows:Funding.Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(2020J06009);Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics (SKLAO2020001A15);National Safety Academic Fund (U2130112);National Natural Science Foundation of China (62175205).

Enhancing THz fingerprint detection on the planar surface of an inverted dielectric metagrating

Terahertz(THz)molecular fingerprint sensing provides a powerful label-free tool for the detection of traceamount samples.Due to the weak light–matter interaction,various metallic or dielectric metasurfaces have been adopted to enhance fingerprint absorbance signals.However,they suffer from strong background damping or complicated sample coating on patterned surfaces.Here,we propose an inverted dielectric metagrating and enhance the broadband THz fingerprint detection of trace analytes on a planar sensing surface.Enhancement of the broadband signal originates from the effects of evanescent waves at the planar interface,which are excited by multiplexed quasi-bound states in the continuum(quasi-BICs).One can evenly boost the near-field intensities within the analytes by tuning the asymmetry parameter of quasi-BIC modes.The multiplexing mechanism of broadband detection is demonstrated by manipulating the incident angle of excitation waves and thickness of the waveguide layer.Compared to the conventional approach,the THz fingerprint peak value is dramatically elevated,and the largest peak enhancement time is 330.Our work gives a promising way to facilitate the metasensing of the THz fingerprint on a planar surface and will inspire universal THz spectral analysis for trace analytes with different physical states or morphologies.

Economic burden of inpatients with viral hepatitis B-related diseases and the influencing factors

Objective:The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic burden of inpatients with hepatitis B virus(HBV)-related diseases and the influencing factors so as to provide an effective basis for the development of health prevention and control strategies.Methods:The patients were selected by means of successive sampling in the period between August and December 2012 from those who were diagnosed with HBV-related diseases and hospitalized in countylevel medical institutions of Jiangsu Province.One hundred ninety-six patients were studied,including 3 patients with acute HBV,141 with chronic HBV,18 with compensatory cirrhosis,22 with decompensated cirrhosis,and 12 with liver cancer.This study adopted a questionnaire method to investigate and calculate the direct and indirect economic burden of the subjects according to disease economic burden theories and methods.Multiple linear stepwise regression was used for analysis of the influencing factors for economic burden of inpatients with HBV-related diseases.Results:The average economic burden for the 196 inpatients investigated was RMB 28,971.The direct economic burden was RMB 19,916(68.7%),including direct medical costs(RMB 19,087;95.8%)and direct non-medical costs(RMB 829;4.2%).The indirect economic burden was RMB 9055(31.3%),including patient-related expenses(RMB 6348;70.1%)and nursing expenses(RMB 2707;29.9%).According to the multiple linear stepwise regression analysis results,the hospital stay,proportion of medicine,age,and disease type affected the economic burden of the patients(P<0.05).Conclusion:Patients with HBV-related diseases undertake a heavy economic burden for hospitalization,especially the direct economic burden.Therefore,the inpatients’economic burden can be reduced by shortening the hospital stay,reducing the medical expenses reasonably,and delaying the progression of disease as far as possible according to medical standards.

Estimating the time interval between transmission generations and the presymptomatic period by contact tracing surveillance data from 31 provinces in the mainland of China

The global pandemic of 2019 coronavirus disease(COVID-19)is a great assault to public health.Presymptomatic transmission cannot be controlled with measures designed for symptomatic persons,such as isolation.This study aimed to estimate the interval of the transmission generation(TG)and the presymptomatic period of COVID-19,and compare the ftting effects of TG and serial interval(S)based on the SEIHR model incorporating the surveillance data of 3453 cases in 31 provinces.These data were allocated into three distributions and the value of AIC presented that the Weibull distribution fitted well.The mean of TG was 5.2 days(95%C:4.6-5.8).The mean of the presymptomatic period was 2.4 days(95%CI:1.5-3.2).The dynamic model using TG as the generation time performed well.Eight provinces exhibited a basic reproduction number from 2.16 to 3.14.Measures should be taken to control presymptomatic transmission in the COVID-19 pandemic.