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The grading of evidence is an important factor in clinical decision-making. The current evidence grading system based on western medicine is limited in the clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）， therefore we propose the solutions to the development of grading system for TCM interventional evidence， following the international evidence grading standards， taking into considerations of the unique characteristics of TCM practice， based on the Grades of recommendation， assessment， development and evaluation （GARDE） evaluation system， and integrating with grading system regarding TCM classical literature and empirical evidence from modern famous doctors. The evidence from classical literature is suggested to be evaluated from three aspects including source of ancient medical records， comprehensive of treatment details， and the inheritance. The qualification of famous doctors， content integrity， and inheritance of experiences will be used to evaluate the evidence from famous doctors' experience. The multi-sourced evidence such as TCM classical literature， experience of modern famous doctors， and modern researches is mainly integrated in a qualitative way， and the overall level of evidence of TCM interventions will be graded consistently with the GRADE system based on modern research. The evidence from classical literature and modern famous doctors' experience will be assessed and considered as supplementary evidence， which will make the evaluation of clinical evidence more objectively and comprehensively， thereby guiding clinical practice further.
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Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety ofGuipi Decoction vs. antidepressants for depression. Methods Articles about the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) ofGuipi Decoction for depression were searched in the databases of CNKI, VIP, Wanfang Data, CMB, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. Two researchers independently screened the articles, extracted the data, and evaluated the methodological quality. Meta-analyses were performed by using RevMan 5.2 software.Results A total of 9 RCTs articles involving 893 cases were included. Meta-analysis results suggested that as compared with antidepressants only,Guipi Decoction together with antidepressants was associated with a significantly greater reduction in HAMD scores (MD=-4.63, 95%CI [-5.95, -3.32];P<0.001). There was no significant difference in HAMD scores betweenGuipi Decoction used alone and antidepressants (MD=-0.30, 95%CI [-4.22, 3.62];P=0.88). As compared with antidepressants,Guipi Decoction together with antidepressants increased in the rates of total effective events (RR=1.26, 95%CI [1.14, 1.38];P<0.001). No serious adverse reactions were reported. Meta-analysis results suggested that the incidence of adverse reactions of Guipi Decoction(RR=0.48, 95%CI [0.40, 0.58];P<0.001) andGuipi Decoction together with antidepressants (RR=0.51, 95%CI [0.30, 0.85];P=0.010) were lower than that of antidepressants alone.Conclusion The present evidence suggests thatGuipi Decoction is effective and relatively safe for patients with depression. However, because the quality of included research was low, more large-scale RCTs with multicenter and high quality are needed for further verification.
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Objective To investigate the awareness of osteoporosis and its influential factors in middle-aged and older people. Methods By using self-designed questionnaire, 354 middle-aged and old people were investigated as to their awarness of osteoporosis in Chajiao street community in Guangzhou. Among them, 58 people were measured the bone density in the calcaneal bone by Ultrasound. Results The average score of the questionnaire was 9.46 ± 5.13, and the accuracy was 39.4%. In the diagnosis and treatment, the accuracy was just 17.8%. The diet (the accuracy in 54%) and sport (the accuracy in 50.3%) were good. The statistical analyses showed the linear relationship between the T value of bone density and the age (P = 0.021), between the T value and the score (P = 0.047). Wilcoxon rank sum test found that the T value between female and male was significantly different (Z = -3.749, P < 0.000). With multiple linear regression analysis, the T value had a linear correlation with the score (F = 4.224, P = 0.045) positively. Conclusions Currently, the awareness of osteoporosis in the middle-aged and old people was inadequate. To better prevent osteoporosis, the propogation of knowledge and guidance provided by clinicians in osteoporosis should be improved necessarily and emergently.
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This study was aimed to analyze the formulas and classify the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) by Dr. Huang Chunlin based on the data mining method. A total of 63 CKD outpatients' medical records by Dr. Huang were collected. And 226 formulas prescribed in the medical records were put in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System (TCMISS). Data mining techniques were applied in the study of as-sociation rule mining algorithm and complex system entropy cluster, the usage frequency and the correlation of each single Chinese medicinal in order to sort out the prescription pattern of CKD. The results showed that to for-tify the spleen and tonify the kidney were found to be the basic method of CKD treatment . Through the applica-tion of TCMISS, the Chinese medicinals used in Dr. Huang's CKD treatment were Astragalus root, Eucommia, Epimedium, Cuscuta, Agastache, Danshen Root, Ligustrum. It was concluded that the TCMISS is of great value in the summarization of clinical experiences of well-known TCM doctors.
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This study was aimed to analyze the medication and herbal prescription rules in the treatment of nephrotic syndrome (NS) by Prof. Huang Chunlin with Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System ( TCMISS ) . Prescriptions used for NS treatment were collected and the data was entered into the TCMISS . The commonly used herbs and herbal prescription rules in NS treatment by Prof. Huang were summarized through the association rules, revised mutual information, complex system entropy cluster and other unsupervised hierarchical clustering methods. The results showed that based on the analysis of 280 prescriptions from 68 patients, the fre-quency of each herb and association rules among herbs included in the database were identified. And the basic NS treatment prescription by Prof. Huang Chunlin and 8 new prescriptions were mined from the database. It was concluded that data mining is of great practical value to the summarization of clinical experiences of well-known TCM doctors.
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To select appropriate descriptors for responses of the Health Scale of Traditional Chinese Medicine (HSTCM).
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OBJECTIVE: To test the reliability and validity of Health Scale of Traditional Chinese Medicine (HSTCM) by means of questionnaires. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at Liwan Community of Guangzhou, Old People's Home in Guangzhou and Outpatient Department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. A total of 652 Chinese individuals (over 18 years old) were assessed with the 88-item version of HSTCM and World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure-Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF), which were randomly delivered to them. Some socioeconomic characteristics were registered. RESULTS: A test-retest reliability (15-day interval) was found among the 76 persons who completed the questionnaires by themselves. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.93. Associated 95% confidence interval (CI) was 0.89-0.96. Split-half reliability was 0.79. Inter-investigator reliability (0.93) was also good, and the ICC of HSTCM was 0.90 (95%CI 0.67-0.97). The correlation between HSTCM and WHOQOL-BREF was -0.66. The correlations of HSTCM and questionnaire deliver order, investigator, interview date and interview time were 0.06, -0.12, -0.17 and 0.20 respectively. The correlation between HSTCM and self-rated health (0.46) was greater than that between HSTCM and chronic illness (0.28). Divided by individuals with or without chronic illness, area under the ROC (receiver operator characteristic) curve for HSTCM was 0.67 (95%CI 0.63-0.71). CONCLUSION: It indicates that the HSTCM is conceptually valid with satisfactory psychometric properties and forms a basis for further applications in clinical research of traditional or integrative medicine.
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Objective To obtain the effective characteristic information for the standardization of diagnosis of traditional Chinese medical(TCM) syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Methods Fifty-four items of symptoms and signs in RA patients were input into the computer,and Mahalanobis distance discriminant analysis(DDA) was used for the selection of effective indexes.Results According to the weight value and the result of T test,17 items from 54 had the highest rate of discrimination accuracy,up to 96.5%.Conclusion The results of computerized pattern recognition for the syndrome diagnosis of RA are consistent with the clinical diagnosis,which indicates that computerized pattern recognition can be used for the standardization of syndrome diagnosis of RA.
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Objective To assess the effectiveness of the Chinese herbal formula Tongxie Yaofang(TY) or its modified prescriptions in the management of irritable bowl syndrome(IBS).Methods A systematic review was carried out according to the Cochrane standards.A computerized literature search was carried out in main Chinese and English databases including CNKI,CBMdisc,Database of Chinese Doctorate Dissertation,Database of excellent Chinese Master Dissertation,MEDLINE and Cochrane Library.Studies were retrieved when they were randomized controlled trials(RCTs) whose interventions for IBS patients were TY or modified prescriptions of TY with placebos or conventional medicine as controls.Outcome measurement included the alleviation of main symptoms such as abdominal pain,diarrhea frequency,and(or) comprehensive effectiveness and quality of life(QOL).Meta-analysis was performed after evaluating the quality of included studies.Subgroup analysis was done between subgroups of diarrhea-predominant IBS and subtype-regardless IBS,and was also done between diarrhea-predominant IBS treated with TCM syndrome differentiation and that without TCM syndrome differentiation.Funnel plot analysis was used to analyze the publication bias.Results Forty-six studies met the inclusion criteria,and 4155 participants were included in the meta-analysis.The results showed that the effectiveness of TY or modified prescriptions of TY was better than that of conventional medicine or placebos[OR= 5.30,95%CI(4.38,6.41)].Subgroup analysis showed that the OR of TY or modified prescriptions of TY in the diarrhea-predominant groups[OR=5.61,95%CI(4.33,7.25)]was higher than that of subtype-regardless groups[OR=4.95,95%CI(3.74,6.55)],and OR of TY or modified prescriptions of TY in the studies of diarrhea-predominant IBS treated based on TCM syndrome differentiation [OR=6.50,95%CI(3.78,11.20)] was higher than that of the studies without TCM syndrome differentiation[OR=5.37,95%CI(4.01,7.19)],but the difference was insignificant.Funnel plot showed certain publication bias.Conclusion The effectiveness of TY or modified prescriptions of TY for IBS patients is better than that of western medicine and placebo.But their effectiveness for diarrhea-predominant IBS or with TCM syndrome differentiation was not proved to be better than those for other subtypes or without TCM syndrome differentiation.Biases may exist for overall quality of the studies is low;negative results in some high quality studies need further discussion.
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[Objective] Systematic review was carried out in quality analysis of literature of Shuang Huanglian Injection (SHI) for acute respiratoiy infections ( ARI) . [Methods] Database was set up according to the principles of clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine and the evaluation scale for ARI. The data was managed by descriptive analysis and uniformity test. [Results] In 49 clinical reports, 42.16% adopted the randomized and controlled method but the quality was not so good; the criteria of inclusion and exclusion was absent or not standardized in most of the reports; blinded method was adopted scarcely; drop-out and missed cases were rarely mentioned while adverse effects were reported usually. [Conclusion] The design of clinical study of SHI for ARI has been improved in recent years but there is still a lot of inadequany.