Bloodletting puncture in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke: protocol for a mixed-method study of a multi-center randomized controlled trial and focus group.

This study is to investigate the effectiveness and safety of bloodletting puncture (BP) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) when used in combination with standard treatment, as well as the patients' feelings and attitudes toward the treatment. This is a mixed method research which includes a multi-center, superiority, randomized controlled clinical trial, and focus group interview. A total of 360 AIS participants will be enrolled. They will be randomized into one of the following two groups for 7 d: (a) BP with standard treatment group (n = 180); (b) standard treatment group (n = 180). The primary outcome will be National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score at day 7 after treatment. Secondary outcomes will be changes of Glasgow Coma Scale score, NIHSS score, mRS and Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome score from baseline to 7, 14, and 30 d after treatment, recurrence rate and all-cause mortality rate within 30 d, and the safety assessments. The focus group will be conducted with a purposive sample of 1-2 acupuncturists and 1-2 patients respectively at each center at 7 and 30 d after treatment. We designed a mixed method study to evaluate the effect of BP, an acupuncture therapy for patients with AIS. If the findings of this study confirm the effectiveness of BP to reduce the NIHSS score and other related outcomes and patients are willing to accept the therapy, we believe this study will help the implementation of this therapy in clinical practice, and provide new evidence for the treatment of AIS.

Introduction to Health Research Priority Setting Methods and Application Recommendations of Methods in Field of Traditional Chinese Medicine / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Health research priority setting， based on the existing disease burden or healthcare needs， screens out specific areas or topics with relatively high research priority by scientific and systematic methods， and optimizes the allocation of health resources by influencing healthcare decision-making， so as to alleviate the imbalance between regional or global health and development. Many developed countries have carried out related research and practical work on different scales， and the World Health Organization （WHO） attaches great importance to the transformation and application of relevant achievements in developing countries. As the largest developing country in the world， China's research in this field started relatively late， and only a small number of scholars have carried out part of the localization methodology research and practice according to the specific national conditions. However， health research priority setting has not yet attracted the attention of large-scale research institutions or government organizations in China. Although the priority setting is rarely mentioned in the research on traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）， the research and decision-making on the diseases responding specifically to TCM can also be regarded as the practical work of exploring the priority of TCM. Policymakers have a sense of priority support in the "priority of TCM research"， but the decisions from the top design are mainly based on the consensus reached by high-level think tanks. There is a lack of extensive research， and moreover， the data of multiple stakeholders are not included. Therefore， it is urgent to introduce appropriate priority setting methods to solve the problem of transparency and scientificity in the decision-making process. Given the perspective of the specific implementation， the present study introduced three international priority setting methods， i.e.， the James Lind Alliance and Priority Setting Partnerships（JLAPSP，）the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative（CHNRI）， and the Council on Health Research and Development （COHRED）， and presented relevant recommendations on how to apply them in the research of TCM， which is expected to provide references for the local research.

Clinical Evidence of Chinese Patent Medicines in Treatment of Respiratory Diseases in Children： A Scoping Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveThis study performed a scoping review to comprehensively analyze and report the information on the instructions of Chinese patent medicines and clinical research evidence for the treatment of respiratory diseases in children. MethodChinese patent medicines against respiratory diseases in children were obtained by searching the three major drug catalogues. The Chinese and English databases were searched for relevant literature，followed by data statistics and visualized analysis. ResultAfter screening and analysis，52 Chinese patent medicines were included，involving nine dosage forms. The main drugs were Scutellariae Radix，Armeniacae Semen Amarum，Forsythiae Fructus，etc. The main functions included clearing heat and releasing exterior syndrome，and relieving cough and dissipating phlegm. The indications mainly included common cold with wind-heat syndrome and cough in children. Adverse drug reactions and contraindications were only specified in 19.23% （10/52） of Chinese patent medicines，and the rest only displayed "unclear". A total of 279 articles were included，including 277 articles from Chinese Core Periodicals and two articles from SCIE. In terms of research type，those articles included 253 randomized controlled trials （RCTs，with six dosage form/dose comparisons involved），11 retrospective analyses based on Hospital Information System （HIS） data，one case series，13 systematic reviews/Meta-analyses （with two network Meta-analyses involved），and one economic evaluation article. Among them，72.76% （203/279） of the articles were published in the Core Journals of Chinese Science and Technology. Only 33 Chinese patent medicines were involved，and Xiaoer Feire Kechuan Oral Liquid was the top 1 under investigation，accounting for 15.71% （44/280）. The indicated diseases were mainly infantile pneumonia，bronchitis，respiratory tract infection，cough，asthma，and other western medicine diseases. Xiaoer Chiqiao Qingre Granules and Xiaoer Dingchuan Oral Liquid were used off-label. The sample size was concentrated in 51-150 cases，accounting for 67.17% （178/265）. The interventions in the experimental group were mainly Chinese patent medicine + western medicine + basic treatment or Chinese patent medicine + western medicine. The main outcomes were the effective rate and the improvement of clinical symptoms. The adverse reactions were mainly gastrointestinal reactions，drug-induced skin symptoms，etc.，and two studies have shown that drug doses were associated with adverse reactions. ConclusionIn research years，the research on Chinese patent medicines in the treatment of respiratory diseases in children has advanced rapidly. However，there are still some problems that need to be resolved in the future，such as incomplete information on drug content in the instruction，concentrated drugs to be studied，limited indications，failure to highlight the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes，unstandardized research design，and an incomplete reflection of Chinese patent medicine.

Clinical Comprehensive Evaluation of Biantong Capsules and Biantong Tablets in Treatment of Constipation / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo carry out the clinical comprehensive evaluation of Biantong capsules and Biantong tablets in the treatment of constipation guided by the clinical value of drugs， and to provide a scientific basis for the rational pricing， rational use， and cataloging of Biantong capsules/tablets. MethodThe available evidence and survey data were used for the clinical comprehensive evaluation of Biantong capsules/tablets and three control drugs in the treatment of constipation in terms of the six dimensions including effectiveness， safety， economics， innovation， suitability， and accessibility. ResultIn terms of effectiveness， Biantong capsules/tablets can improve the response rate， with clear pharmacological mechanism. In terms of safety， the absence of toxic reaction， the mild adverse reactions， and the favorable prognosis indicate high safety. In terms of economics， the average daily cost of Biantong capsules/tablets is the lowest among the tested drugs， which indicates a cost-effectiveness advantage. In terms of innovation， Biantong capsules/tablets have been authorized patents in China and listed as members in the third category of new drugs of traditional Chinese medicine/ninth new drugs of traditional Chinese medicine. In terms of suitability， Biantong capsules/tablets are convenient to store and take and have good suitability in terms of drug technical characteristics and drug usage. In terms of accessibility， Biantong capsules/tablets have a wide coverage in hospitals， sufficient capacity， low patient burden， extensive drug catalogue coverage， and no major environmental risk for long-term application. The comprehensive values of the tested drugs follow a descending order of control drug B （84.27 score）， Biantong capsules/tablets （82.47 score）， control drug A （70.47 score）， and control drug C （59.46 score）. The recommendations of the expert panel are Class A （18/18）， which can be directly converted into decision-making. ConclusionBiantong capsules/tablets demonstrate a high clinical comprehensive value in the treatment of constipation， providing a reference for the rational pricing， rational use， and cataloging of drugs.

Quality evaluation of the research literature on the pharmacoeconomics of traditional Chinese medicines in China from 2018 to 2022 / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of research literature on pharmacoeconomics of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） in China from 2018 to 2022， to understand the development status and problems of TCM pharmacoeconomic research in China， and to provide a reference for future standardized research on this field. METHODS The systematic search of relevant databases at home and abroad was conducted to obtain the published literature on TCM pharmacoeconomic research in China from January 1， 2018 to November 21， 2022 to summarize the basic information of the literature， the research profile， the method and content of pharmacoeconomic evaluation and to evaluate the quality of the literature by using the CHEERS 2022 checklist； calculate the total literature score by counting the scores of the specific entries of each piece of literature and classifying the quality of the literature as excellent， good， qualified， and unqualified. RESULTS A total of 71 studies were included， involving 60 in Chinese and 11 in English， and 53.52% of the literature was supported by grants； the most studied TCM dosage form was injection （31.03%）； less than half （46.48%） of the literature reported the study angle； short-term economic evaluation was predominantly used （69.01%）； the Chinese studies were dominated by cost-effectiveness analyses （70.00%）， and the English studies were dominated by cost-utility analysis （54.55%）. The average score of literature quality evaluation was 11.02， with two （2.82%） of the literature being of good quality， nine （12.68%） of the literature being of qualified quality， and the majority of the literature （84.51%） being of unqualified quality. The average score of Chinese literature was 9.98， and the average score of English literature was 16.73， with the quality of the latter being significantly better than that of the former. CONCLUSIONS At present， the pharmacoeconomic researches of TCM mainly has problems such as lack of scientific selection of intervention in the control group， nonstandard cost measurement， unreasonable selection of research time limit， quality of evidence for health output indicators to be improved， selection of evaluation methods to be improved， and lack of scientific basis for threshold selection. In order to support the implementation and development of high-level pharmacoeconomics research on TCM， policymakers need to create a favorable policy environment and formulate pharmacoeconomic evaluation guidelines that meet the characteristics of TCM， so as to promote the application and transformation of evaluation results.

Research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years / 中国针灸

The research of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years was reviewed. CNKI and PubMed databases were retrieved with "acupuncture" "moxibustion" and "endometrial receptivity" as key words. The retrieving time was from January of 2007 through December of 2016. As a result, 63 relevant papers were collected and 28 papers regarding clinical and experimental researches of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity were included into analysis. It was found that acupuncture and moxibustion could improve endometrial morphology (including the expression of pinopodes, endometrial thickness and the rate of endometrial type A), reduce the endometrial microcirculation (including endometrial pulsatility index, resistance index and hemodynamic index), increase the levels of estrogen and progesterone and the expressions of their receptors, and regulate the expression of molecular biological regulator (such as integrin, leukemia inhibitory factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and HOXA10). As a result, the endometrial receptivity was improved to provide good environment for embryo implantation and improve the pregnancy rate, which had significant advantage in the field of assisted reproductive technology. However, detections of pinopodes and integrin were invasive. Its application for clinical use had limitations. In addition, the evidence of acupuncture improving endometrial receptivity was still insufficient. By reviewing related research result, this paper further summarized and analyzed the action mechanism of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity to provide references for the clinical treatment.