Syndrome Differentiation Analysis on Mars500 Data of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Mars500 study was a psychological and physiological isolation experiment conducted by Russia, the European Space Agency, and China, in preparation for an unspecified future manned spaceflight to the planet Mars. Its intention was to yield valuable psychological and medical data on the effects of the planned long-term deep space mission. In this paper, we present data mining methods to mine medical data collected from the crew consisting of six spaceman volunteers. The synthesis of the four diagnostic methods of TCM, inspection, listening, inquiry, and palpation, is used in our syndrome differentiation. We adopt statistics method to describe the syndrome factor regular pattern of spaceman volunteers. Hybrid optimization based multilabel (HOML) is used as feature selection method and multilabel k-nearest neighbors (ML-KNN) is applied. According to the syndrome factor statistical result, we find that qi deficiency is a base syndrome pattern throughout the entire experiment process and, at the same time, there are different associated syndromes such as liver depression, spleen deficiency, dampness stagnancy, and yin deficiency, due to differences of individual situation. With feature selection, we screen out ten key factors which are essential to syndrome differentiation in TCM. The average precision of multilabel classification model reaches 80%.

The paradigm and future value of the metaverse for the intervention of cognitive decline.

Cognitive decline is a gradual neurodegenerative process that is affected by genetic and environmental factors. The doctor-patient relationship in the healthcare for cognitive decline is in a "shallow" medical world. With the development of data science, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and digital twin, the introduction of the concept of the metaverse in medicine has brought alternative and complementary strategies in the intervention of cognitive decline. This article technically analyzes the application scenarios and paradigms of the metaverse in medicine in the field of mental health, such as hospital management, diagnosis, prediction, prevention, rehabilitation, progression delay, assisting life, companionship, and supervision. The metaverse in medicine has made primary progress in education, immersive consultation, dental disease, and Parkinson's disease, bringing revolutionary prospects for non-pharmacological complementary treatment of cognitive decline and other mental problems. In particular, with the demand for non-face-to-face communication generated by the global COVID-19 epidemic, the needs for uncontactable healthcare service for the elderly have increased. The paradigm of self-monitoring, self-healing, and healthcare experienced by the elderly through the metaverse in medicine, especially from meta-platform, meta-community, and meta-hospital, will be generated, which will reconstruct the service modes for the elderly people. The future map of the metaverse in medicine is huge, which depends on the co-construction of community partners.

Syndrome Differentiation of Chinese Medicine in Mars 500 Long-Term Closed Environment.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize and elucidate the characteristics and evolvement of Chinese medicine (CM) patterns reflecting the physical and mental conditions of participants in the Mars 500 long-term closed environment. METHODS: The DS01-T Digital TCM Four-Diagnostic Instrument and CM Inquiring Diagnostic Questionnaire were used to collect information from 6 participants in the Mars 500 International Joint Research Project, through diagnostic methods of observation, palpation and inquiry according to CM theory. During the 520 days of the experiment, data collection was performed 37 times; a total of over 400 digital images of tongues and facial complexion and over 20,000 data were collected. These data were then analyzed by a team of experts in CM, statistics, and data mining. RESULTS: The CM pattern evolvement of participants in the long-term closed environment followed some common trends. Qi deficiency was the main CM pattern observed, with individual features depending on constitutional differences [manifested in varying degrees of accompanying patterns of Gan (Liver) qi stagnation, Pi (Spleen) deficiency, dampness encumbering, or yin deficiency]. CONCLUSION: The research has verified the effectiveness of CM syndrome differentiation based on the four diagnostic methods, which should serve as a solid foundation for observation, monitoring, and intervention in regard to the health conditions of astronauts in long-term space flights in the future.

Evaluation of the health status of six volunteers from the Mars 500 project using pulse analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively evaluate the health status of 6 volunteers from the Mars 500 Project through analyzing their pulse graphs and determining the changes in cardiovascular function, degree of fatigue and autonomic nervous function. METHODS: Six volunteers were recruited; all were male aged 26-38 years (average 31.83±4.96 years). Characteristic parameters reflflecting the status of cardiovascular functions were extracted, which included left ventricular contraction, vascular elasticity and peripheral resistance. The degree of fatigue was determined depending on the difference between the calendar age and biological age, which was calculated through the analysis of blood pressure value and characteristic parameters. Based on the values of pulse height variation and pulse time variation on a 30-s pulse graph, autonomic nervous function was evaluated. All parameters examined were marked on an equilateral polygon to form an irregular polygon of the actual fifigure, then health status was evaluated based on the coverage area of the actual fifigure. RESULTS: The results demonstrated: (1) volunteers developed weakened pulse power, increased vascular tension and peripheral resistance, and slight decreased ventricular systolic function; (2) the degree of fatigue was basically mild or moderate; and (3) autonomic nervous function was excited but generally balanced. CONCLUSIONS: These volunteers were in the state of sub-health. According to Chinese medicine theories, such symptoms are mainly caused by the weakening of healthy qi, Gan (Liver) failing in free coursing, and disharmony between Gan and Wei (Stomach), which manifests as a weak and string-like pulse.

Impact of 60 days of 6° head down bed rest on cardiopulmonary function, and the effects of Taikong Yangxin Prescription as a countermeasure.

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes in cardiopulmonary function induced by mid/long-term simulated microgravity with 6° head down bed rest (HDBR), and the effects of Taikong Yangxin Prescription (, TYP) as a countermeasure. METHODS: Fourteen healthy male volunteers were randomly divided into a control group and a Chinese medicine (CM) group (7 in each group) by a random digital table based on their body weight. Both groups underwent 6° HDBR for 60 days. Subjects in the CM group received daily TYP pills and subjects in the control group received daily placebo pills. Cardiac systolic and pumping functions were measured by echocardiography before HDBR; on days 20, 42, and 57 of HDBR; and on day 3 of recovery after HDBR (R+3). Cardiopulmonary functional reserve and exercise capacity were evaluated before HDBR, on day 29, and on day R+3 by exercise testing. RESULTS: The heart rate (HR) increased gradually during HDBR. The HR was significantly higher on day 57 than before HDBR in the control group (P<0.05), but did not increase significantly in the CM group. The stroke volume/stroke volume index, ejection fraction, and left ventricular fractional shortening tended to decrease over time in the control group, but not in the CM group. These parameters were significantly higher in the CM group than in the control group on day 42 (P<0.05 or <0.01). Exercise testing showed that maximum O2 consumption (VO2max), metabolic equivalents, relative O2 consumption (VO2), O2 pulse, and exercise duration were significantly lower on day 29 than before HDBR in the control group, but not in the CM group. CONCLUSIONS: Sixty days of 6° HDBR induced a reduction in cardiac systolic and pumping functions, and reduced cardiopulmonary functional reserve and exercise capacity. Administration of TYP significantly improved cardiac systolic and pumping functions, and maintained cardiopulmonary functional reserve and exercise capacity.

An HPLC-ESI-MS method for simultaneous determination of fourteen metabolites of promethazine and caffeine and its application to pharmacokinetic study of the combination therapy against motion sickness.

The combination therapy, promethazine and caffeine had been proven effective in treating motion sickness and counteracting some possible side effects of using promethazine alone while the mechanism and interaction remained unclear. Therefore, an HPLC-ESI-MS method for simultaneous determination of both drugs, and their metabolites was developed for purpose of pharmacokinetic study. To determine as many metabolites as possible, the influence of parameters such as column, flow rate and pH value of mobile phase, ionization polarity and fragmentation voltage were optimized. Fourteen target analytes were well separated and all of them could be identified and determined in plasma after administration of promethazine and caffeine. The LODs and LOQs were 0.9-6.0 and 2.50-16.0 ng/ml, respectively; the recoveries of three levels of quality control samples were from 86.7% to 102%; the intra-day and inter-day precisions were less than 3% and 9%, separately; and the RSDs of compound stability were all lower than 10% within 24h after sample preparation. As a pharmacokinetic study of the combination therapy in 30 healthy volunteers, concentration-time curves of the drugs and metabolites were studied. The present method for simultaneous measurement of more than ten metabolites is valuable for the study of mechanism and interaction of the combination therapy.