Quality evaluation of clinical trial literatures on the COVID-19 treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) / 药学实践杂志

Objective To evaluate the quality of the clinical trial literatures published on the treatment of COVID-19 with TCM, find out the shortcomings and put forward corresponding suggestions, in order to promote TCM against COVID-19. Methods "COVID-19", "New Coronavirus Pneumonia", "TCM", "Chinese Medicine", "Clinical Trial", "Lianhua Qingwen", "Huoxiang Zhengqi", "Jinhua Qinggan", and other keywords were used to search relevant literatures in CNKI and PubMed database. Among the all the screened relevant literatures on the treatment of COVID-19 with TCM, the literature quality was assessed according to evaluation criteria of clinical trial literatures. Results A total of 463 papers related to the treatment of COVID-19 with TCM were obtained. 440 papers on theoretical research on the network pharmacology mechanism of Chinese medicine treatment of COVID-19 were excluded. Among the 23 articles included in the quality analysis, there are 3 randomized controlled studies, 1 multi-center prospective randomized controlled trial, 2 disease case report trials, and 5 uncontrolled single arm studies, 5 controlled trials and 7 retrospective studies. In the period of more than half a year, although many clinical trial documents of TCM for the treatment of COVID-19 have been published, the clinical trial design reflected in most TCM clinical trials were not standardized. There are problems in "randomness and rationality", such as no control group, no randomization design, only case studies, no blinding method in controlling bias, and insufficient objectivity in the evaluation criteria of efficacy. All of these need to be improved. Conclusion The treatment of new coronavirus pneumonia with TCM still requires more and standardized clinical trial verifications and publications to generate strong evidence-based results, such as adding control groups, increasing sample size, and using blinding methods to increase the credibility of clinical trials.

Survey and intervention countermeasures on occupational stress of young hospital pharmacists / 药学实践杂志

Objective To investigate the occupational life status and occupational related stress factors of young hospital pharmacists, and to promote the healthy development of young pharmacists. Methods Questionnaire was designed and released on-line through Wenjuan Star APP. Demographic characteristic information, occupational stress and stress management data were obtained. Data were processed with SPSS. Results About sixty percent of 289 questionnaire respondents complained of occupational stress (178 respondents). Gender, education level, hospital grade, and job position had no significant effect on occupational stress difference. However, different age group showed different occupational stress. Pharmacist at the age of 31-35 complained more stress than the other age group. Pharmacist with high title complained more stress than the lower titles. Conclusion More than half of young pharmacists suffer from the high occupational stress, and various intervention measures should be taken to relieve the stress.

The mechanism study on Chaihudaxiong mixture in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 with network pharmacology approach / 药学实践杂志

Objective To investigate the pharmacological mechanism of Chaihudaxiong mixture in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on a network pharmacology approach. Methods The effective ingredients and targets of Chaihudaxiong mixture were collected from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). The targets’ names were standardized by Uniprot database. Genes associated with coronavirus were obtained from the GeneCards and OMIM, which were intersected with effective therapeutic targets. A "herbs-ingredients-targets" network was compiled and analyzed by Cytoscape 3.7.2. The protein-protein interaction of the targets was analyzed by String. The GO gene annotation and KEGG signaling pathway analysis were performed using related packages of the R software. Results A total of 165 active ingredients and 51 targets were collected. Further analysis revealed that the main active ingredients were β-sitosterol and 11 flavonoids. The core targets were CASP3, MAPK3, IL-6, MAPK8, IL-10, CXCL8, MAPK1 and IL-1B. A total of 1722 GO entries were obtained from the GO gene annotation (P<0.05), including 1612 entries for biological processes, 30 entries for cell composition, and 80 entries for molecular functions. 156 signaling pathways (P<0.05) were obtained with KEGG signaling pathway screen. The important signaling pathways were AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complication, Influenza A, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway and hepatitis B. Conclusion This study revealed the synergistic features of multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway of Chaihudaxiong mixture in the treatment of COVID-19, which provided an important scientific basis for further understanding the mechanism of Chaihudaxiong mixture in the treatment of COVID-19.

Evaluation on the clinical utilization of human serum albumin in ICU patients / 药学实践杂志

Objective To evaluate the utilization of human serum albumin (HSA ) in intensive care unit (ICU ) to pro-mote rational use of HSA clinically .Methods Data were collected from the patients received HSA therapy during the period of January 1 ,2015 to December 31 ,2015 .The indications and usage of HSA were analyzed statistically .Results 416 bottles of HSA were administered to 64 patients .The average dose was 62 .5g per patient .The most popular indication was for hypopro-teinemia (39 .1% ) followed by encephaledema ,craniocerebral trauma ,shock and tumors .Before the HSA therapy ,36 patients (56 .3% ) had albumin level of 15-25 g/L and 23 patients (35 .9% ) of 25-35 g/L .Conclusion HSA is widely used in ICU for different indications .Some misuses still exist .Guidelines for proper use of HSA are needed to guarantee its rational use .HSA should be used strictly following these guidelines .

Protective effects of L-Arginine in the diabetic vascular dysfunction / 中国基层医药

Objective To explore the effects of L-Arginine on diabetic vascular endothelial function. Methods 60 patients with Diabetes were randomly divided into two group:placebo control group(30 patients)and L-Arginine group(30 patients). Patients in L-Arginine group were taken L-Arginine 7g a day. All patients were treated for 28days and other 7days for elution. The plasma concentration of nitric oxide(NO) and endothelin (ET), vWF were measured in each group before and after the experiment. Flow Mediated Dilation(FMD) function of brachial artery of all patients were measured by high resolution vascular ultrasound. Results After the experiment, the plasma concentration of NO in L-Arginine group was higher than that of placebo group, meanwhile the plasma concentration of ET and vWF were lower than placebo group (P ＜ 0. 05). Moreover, FDM in L-Arginine group were significant higher than placebo group(P ＜ 0. 05). Conclusion L-Arginine could protect the vascular function in the diabetic patients.