The research background, way of thinking, research contents and methods of a united research project - "The Clinical Research on the Treatment of SARS with Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine" were reviewed. The latest research achievements on the treatment of SARS with integrated traditional and western medicine and the difficult points in the research were discussed. Furthermore, some tentative ideas were put forward to further the research. The conclusion was drawn that the principles of evidence-based medicine and the research scheme of multi-centered, prospective and randomized controlled trials, as well as the standard statistical and analyzing methods are the best way to assess the effectiveness and safety of treating SARS with integrated traditional and western medicine.
Objective To explore the methods used for developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture. Methods Based on the characteristics of acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine,and principles of evidence-based medicine, this article introduces and summarizes the processes and methods for developing an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for acupuncture. We analyzed similarities and differences between clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and for other interventions. We used an evidence-based clinical practice guideline of acupuncture for depression as an example to illustrate the methods of literature search, grading of evidence and recommendations, evidence evaluation and consensus formation. Results Preliminary recommendations on the methods for developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture were made. Conclusion Based on the optimized rational methodology for developing clinical guidelines, evidence-based high-quality clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture could be established.
Objective To assess the clinical efficacy and safety of Shuxuetong in the treatment of cerebral infarction. Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified from MEDLINE (1996 to Feb. 2006), EMBASE (1984 to Dec. 2005), Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Issue 4, 2005), Chinese Cochrane Centre Database, CBMdisc (1978 to Dec. 2005). We handsearched the related published and unpublished data and their references. All trials about Shuxuetong injection for cerebral infarction were included. Data were extracted and evaluated by two reviewers independently with designed extraction form. RevMan 4.2.8 software was used for data analysis. Results Eleven RCTs involving 1 122 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis were listed as follows: ① Total effective rate: Compared with Danshen, three studies showed that Shuxuetong were more effective with OR 4.01, 95%CI 2.00 to 8.04; ② Adverse effect: The number of adverse drug reaction was small and the symptoms were moderate; ③ Neurologic impairment score: Compared with safflower, one study showed that Shuxuetong had better improvement with WMD -2.60, 95%CI -3.23 to -1.97. Conclusions Shuxuetong may increase the total effective rate of cerebral infarction. More high quality trials are required.
Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of various types of acupuncture in the treatment of mammary dysplasia. Methods We searched The Cochrane Library, CENTRAL, MEDLINE (1966 to 2004), EMBASE (1980 to 2004), CBM (1975 to 2004), CNKI (1997 to 2004) and reference lists, databases of ongoing trials and relevent academic conference proceedings. Results Five studies involving 534 women ranging from 78 to 180 met the inclusion criteria. The recovery rates of two groups in one study showed acupuncture was statistically superior to Rupixiao (RR 9.00, 95%CI 2.29 to 35.43; RR 8.04, 95%CI 2.20 to 32.02), six good improvement rates (including groups analysis) indicated that there was no significant difference between acupuncture and other therapies. None of the studies reported incidence of adverse reaction. Conclusions Overall, there is no conclusive evidence for acupuncture in the treatment of mammary dysplasia because the quality of included studies and amount of evidence are both poor and insufficient. There is an urgent need for larger, well-designed randomised controlled trials to assess the effectiveness and adverse-effect of acupuncture.
Blinding is an effective measure to control and reduce the bias caused by the subjective factors of participants in a study. However, the failure of blinding results in more bias. Therefore, it is necessary to assess blinding quality in clinical trials involving blinding. The relevant international articles and methods of blinding assessment were summarized in this study. According to the present situation of blinding assessment, researchers don't pay enough attention to the assessment of blinding quality, relevant studies lack, comprehensive methods and tools for blinding quality, and researchers have discrepancy with time points in blinding quality. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further studies in all aspects, and it is suggested that comprehensive blinding quality scales should be developed according to the key influencing factors of the implementation of blinding. Through the assessment of the implementation of key factors, the risk and degree of blinding should be confirmed in order to better interpret and assess researcher results.
Through summarizing the definition, concept, and development of patient registry, and also retrieving ClinicalTrials.gov, we introduce its application areas, application range, disease, research number. Based on the application situation, we present the challenges faced now and future development of direction.
ObjectivesTo investigate risk factors for unplanned readmission in ischemic stroke patients within 31 days by using random forest algorithm.MethodsThe record of readmission patients with ischemic stroke within 31 days from 24 hospitals in Beijing between between 2015 and 2016 were collected. Patients were divided into two groups according to the occurrence of readmission within 31 days or not. Chi-squared or Mann-Whitney U test was used to select variables into the random forest algorithm. The precision coefficient and the Gini coefficient were used to comprehensively assess the importance of all variables, and select the more important variables and use the margind effect to assess relative risk of different levels.ResultsA total of 3 473 patients were included, among them 960 (27.64%) were readmitted within 31 days after stroke hospitalization. Based on the result of random forest, the most important variables affecting the risk of unplanned readmission within 31 days included the length of hospital stay, age, medical expense payment, rank of hospital, and occupation. When hospitalization was within 1 month, 10-day-hospitalization-stay patients had the lowest risk of rehospitalization; the younger the patients was, the higher the risk of readmission was. For ranks of hospital, patients from tertiary hospital had higher risk than secondary hospital. Furthermore, patients whose medical expenses were paid by free medical service and whose occupations were managers or staffs had higher risk of readmission within 31 days.ConclusionsThe unplanned readmission risk within 31 days of discharged ischemic stroke patients was connected not only with disease, but also with personal social and economic factors. Thus, more attention should be paid to both the medical process and the personal and family factors of stroke patients.
In order to standardize the reporting of sham acupuncture and improve the quality of reporting of sham acupuncture, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine has developed a specific reporting guideline for sham acupuncture: SHam Acupuncture REporting (SHARE) which contains ten categories with nineteen items. This paper introduces the development methods and main contents of the guidelines to provide a reference for researchers to correctly understand and reasonably apply the guidelines.