Acupuncture as a Therapeutic Intervention for Acute Gastrointestinal Injury (AGI): A Preliminary Study.

Acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) is a significant factor contributing to increased mortality in patients receiving intensive care unit (ICU) care. Traditional Chinese medicine's acupuncture techniques offer an alternative approach to treating digestive disorders by controlling gastrointestinal secretion, improving gastrointestinal motility, and minimizing side effects. Transabdominal intestinal ultrasonography has proven effective in assessing gastrointestinal injury in critically ill patients. This study aims to evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in AGI patients using ultrasound. The main steps of the study include the syndrome-based selection of appropriate acupuncture points, including Hegu (LI4), Zhongwan (CV 12), Tianshu (ST 25), Zusanli (ST 36), Shangjuxu (ST 37), and Xiajuxu (ST 39), followed by a 30 min Deqi acupuncture session once a day for 1 week. The treatment's effectiveness is assessed by an experienced physician using abdominal gastrointestinal ultrasonography. This article provides a detailed account of how to standardize the use of acupuncture in treating gastrointestinal dysfunction in critically ill patients.

A Traditional Chinese Medicine Characteristic Therapy for Bronchial Asthma: Moxibustion.

Bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway which can lead to symptoms such as recurrent wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, or cough, as a result of increased airway reactivity. With high diurnal variation, these symptoms often occur or worsen at night or in the morning. By burning and roasting the Chinese medica above human acupoints, moxibustion is a type of treatment that stimulates the activity of the human meridians through drugs and heat stimulation to prevent and treat diseases. According to the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoints are selected on the corresponding parts, which has a definite effect. It is regarded as a characteristic traditional Chinese medicine therapy for bronchial asthma. This protocol elaborates the methods and steps of patient management, material preparation, selection of acupoints, operation, and postoperative nursing to ensure safe and effective moxibustion treatment to significantly improve the clinical symptoms and quality of life of patients with bronchial asthma.

Preparation and characterization of diacylglycerol via ultrasound-assisted enzyme-catalyzed transesterification of lard with glycerol monolaurate.

The study aimed to evaluate the effect of ultrasonic pretreatment on the transesterification of lard with glycerol monolaurate (GML) using Lipozyme TL IM to synthesize diacylglycerol (DAG), and the physicochemical properties of lard, GML, ultrasonic-treated diacylglycerol (named U-DAG), purified ultrasonic-treated diacylglycerol obtained by molecular distillation (named P-U-DAG), and without ultrasonic-treated diacylglycerol (named N-U-DAG) were analyzed. The optimized ultrasonic pretreatment conditions were: lard to GML mole ratio 3:1, enzyme dosage 6 %, ultrasonic temperature 80 °C, time 9 min, power 315 W. After ultrasonic pretreatment, the mixtures reacted for 4 h in a water bath at 60 °C, the content of DAG reached 40.59 %. No significant variations were observed between U-DAG and N-U-DAG in fatty acids compositions and iodine value, while P-U-DAG had lower unsaturated fatty acids than U-DAG. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that the melting and crystallization properties of DAGs prepared by ultrasonic pretreatment significantly differed from lard. FTIR spectra noted transesterification reaction from lard and GML with and without ultrasonic pretreatment would not change the structure of lard. However, thermogravimetric analysis proved that N-U-DAG, U-DAG, and P-U-DAG had lower oxidation stability than lard. The higher the content of DAG, the faster the oxidation speed.