The role of traditional Chinese medicine on fracture surgery, hospitalization, and total mortality risks in diabetic patients with osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: Studies have confirmed that osteoporosis has been considered as one of the complications of diabetes, and the health hazards to patients are more obvious. This study is mainly based on the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database (TNHID). Through the analysis of TNHID, it is shown that the combined treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) medicine in patients of diabetes with osteoporosis (T2DOP) with lower related risks. METHODS: According to the study design, 3131 patients selected from TNHID who received TCM treatment were matched by 1-fold propensity score according to gender, age, and inclusion date as the control group. Cox proportional hazards analyzes were performed to compare fracture surgery, hospitalization, and all-cause mortality during a mean follow-up from 2000 to 2015. RESULTS: A total of 1055/1469/715 subjects (16.85%/23.46%/11.42%) had fracture surgery/inpatient/all-cause mortality of which 433/624/318 (13.83%/19.93%/10.16%) were in the TCM group) and 622/845/397 (19.87%/26.99%/12.68%) in the control group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that subjects in the TCM group had lower rates of fracture surgery, inpatient and all-cause mortality (adjusted HR = 0.467; 95% CI = 0.225-0.680, P<0.001; adjusted HR = 0.556; 95% CI = 0.330-0.751, P<0.001; adjusted HR = 0.704; 95% CI = 0.476-0.923, P = 0.012). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the cumulative risk of fracture surgery, inpatient and all-cause mortality was significantly different between the case and control groups (all log-rank p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study provides longitudinal evidence through a cohort study of the value of integrated TCM for T2DOP. More research is needed to fully understand the clinical significance of these results.

Static magnetic field attenuates mortality rate of mice by increasing the production of IL-1 receptor antagonist.

PURPOSES: Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a complex systemic thrombohemorrhagic disorder involving intravascular coagulation and hemorrhage. The aim of this study is to test whether static magnetic field (SMF) is effective in attenuating lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced DIC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In vivo experiments were performed in this study using male BALB/cByJ mice. An intraperitoneal injection of 50 mg/kg LPS was shown to lead to approximately 50% mortality and this dose was used in subsequent experiments. To test the effects of SMF on the survival rate of LPS-induced animals, the mice were exposed to 0.25-T SMF for 2 h before LPS injection. In addition, the effect of a 2-h SMF treatment on the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines was evaluated. RESULTS: In the first set of experiments, we found that the survival rate was higher in the SMF-exposed group than in the sham-exposed group. The circulating platelet (PLT) counts in the SMF-exposed mice were significantly higher than in the unexposed animals. However, no significant changes in inflammatory cytokine, including tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), in plasma were found after SMF treatment. The results from the second experiment showed that the plasma levels of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) were higher in the SMF-exposed group than in the sham group. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to an SMF increases the plasma levels of IL-1ra. This effect may inhibit the reduction in PLT in plasma, resulting in prevention in LPS induced DIC.

Aloe-emodin-induced apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma cells.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anticancer effect of aloe-emodin, an anthraquinone compound present in the leaves of Aloe vera, on two distinct human gastric carcinoma cell lines, AGS and NCI-N87. We demonstrate that aloe-emodin induced cell death in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Noteworthy is that the AGS cells were generally more sensitive than the NCI-N87 cells. Aloe-emodin caused the release of apoptosis-inducing factor and cytochrome c from mitochondria, followed by the activation of caspase-3, leading to nuclear shrinkage and apoptosis. In addition, exposure to aloe-emodin suppressed the casein kinase II activity in a time-dependent manner and was accompanied by a reduced phosphorylation of Bid, a downstream substrate of casein kinase II and a pro-apoptotic molecule. These preclinical studies suggest that aloe-emodin represents a suitable and novel chemotherapeutic drug candidate for the treatment of human gastric carcinoma.

Premedication with pronase or N-acetylcysteine improves visibility during gastroendoscopy: an endoscopist-blinded, prospective, randomized study.

AIM: To assess the efficacy of premedicaton with pronase or N-acetylcysteine (NAC) at 20 min before upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy and to determine whether pronase or NAC pretreatment influences the reliability of the rapid urease test. METHODS: A total of 146 patients were prospectively and randomly assigned into the study groups according to different premedications before endoscopy. One endoscopist assessed mucosal visibility (MV) with scores ranged from 1 to 4 at four sites in the stomach. The sum of the MV scores from these four locations was defined as the total mucosal visibility (TMV) score. Identification of H pylori was performed using CLO test, histology, and serology. RESULTS: The Group with pronase premedication had a significantly lower TMV score than did the groups with gascon and gascon water (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). The group with NAC had a significantly lower TMV score than the group with gascon (P < 0.01) and a trend of a lower MV score than the group with gascon water (P = 0.06). The TMV score did not significantly differ between the group with pronase and the group with NAC (P = 0.39 and P = 0.14, respectively). The sensitivity and specificity of the CLO test were 92.5% and 93.9%, respectively, in groups premedicated with pronase and NAC together. CONCLUSION: Premedication with pronase or NAC at 20 min before UGI endoscopy improves the mucosal visibility of the stomach. Neither pronase nor NAC produces any obvious interference with the CLO test for the identification of H pylori infection.