Efficacy and safety of Xuefu Zhuyu Granules combined with western medicine in the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease: A study protocol of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Despite advances in treatment strategies for coronary heart disease, angina pectoris remains a major cardiovascular disease causing death worldwide. For patients with angina pectoris of coronary heart disease, new or adjuvant treatment regimens are needed. The available evidence suggests that Xuefu Zhuyu Granules combined with Western medicine has advantages in the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease, but whether its efficacy has a placebo effect and whether it can be used as an adjuvant regimen for the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease remains controversial. METHODS: This is a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to study the efficacy and safety of Xuefu Zhuyu Granules combined with Western medicine in the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease. Participants will be randomly divided into a treatment group or a control group, and all patients will receive Western medicine treatment based on guideline recommendations. On this basis, the treatment group orally takes Xuefu Zhuyu Granules and the control group orally takes Xuefu Zhuyu Granules mimic, and are followed up for 24 weeks after 12 weeks of continuous treatment. The observation indexes include: cardiac function parameters (left ventricular end-diastolic diameter; left ventricular end-systolic diameter; left ventricular ejection fraction, blood lipid levels (total cholesterol; triacylglycerol; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), the number of angina attacks per week, total amount of nitroglycerin tablets taken, and adverse reactions. Finally, SPSS22.0 (IBM Company, New York, NY) software will be used for statistical analysis of the data. DISCUSSION: This study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of Xuefu Zhuyu Granules combined with Western medicine in the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease. The results of this study will verify whether the efficacy of Xuefu Zhuyu Granules in the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease belongs to the placebo effect, which will also provide a reference for the clinical use of Xuefu Zhuyu Granules as a supplementary scheme for the treatment of angina pectoris of coronary heart disease.

Potential Acupoint Prescriptions and Outcome Reporting for Acupuncture in Atopic Eczema: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is considered a complementary therapy for atopic eczema. The aim of this scoping review is to identify, examine, and summarize the potential acupoint prescriptions and outcome reporting regarding the clinical trials of acupuncture for eczema. METHODS: We searched different databases from inception to September 30, 2020. The data were screened and extracted to identify the potential acupuncture prescription and examine the variation in outcome reporting, outcome measurement instruments (OMIs), and measurement time points in clinical trials of acupuncture. RESULTS: A total of 116 clinical studies were included. The acupoint combination of LI11 and SP10 was used frequently. The core acupoint association networks were acupoints LI11, SP10, ST36, SP6, and LI4. For clinical trials of acupuncture, a total of 6 outcome distinct domains were identified in the 32 outcome measurements. The most frequently reported outcome was the eczema area, which was reported 97 times (83.6%, 97/116). Immune system outcomes were assessed in 15 outcome measurements, which totally reported 37 times. Adverse events were reported 51 times. TCM syndrome, which could reflect the characteristics of TCM, was reported 4 times. 29 outcomes (90.6%, 29/32) were provided definitions or OMIs. Among these outcomes, the outcome measurement times ranged from 0 to 34. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review provides potential knowledge that should be considered as priority in future research of acupuncture for eczema.

Safety study of axillary reverse mapping in the surgical treatment for breast cancer patients.

PURPOSE: With the purpose of minimizing arm lymphedema after axillary staging surgeries in breast cancer patients, the axillary reverse mapping (ARM) technique has been developed to identify and preserve arm drainage system during axillary surgery. This study aimed to clarify risk factors for metastasis in arm lymphatic drainage system in breast cancer patients with clinically negative axillary nodes. METHODS: Sixty-nine patients who underwent successful both sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) and ARM from October 2009 to August 2010 were enrolled in this study. Radioactive tracer was used for SLN localization and blue dye was used for ARM. All of the identified SLNs and ARM nodes were sent for pathological assessment. RESULTS: ARM nodes metastasis occured in 6 of 69 patients. Age, pathological tumor size (pT) and pathological lymph node status (pN) were not associated with ARM nodes metastasis (P > 0.01). Interestingly, in these 6 patients, all metastatic ARM nodes coincided with SLN-ARM nodes (hot SLN and blue ARM node were the same lymph node). In 50 of 69 patients whose ARM nodes did not coincided with SLNs, all ARM nodes were negative, even in 12 patients with metastatic SLNs. CONCLUSION: Crossover between breast and ipsilateral arm lymphatic drainage system contributes for ipsilateral arm lymph node metastasis. When ARM and SLNB are simultaneously performed in a patient, selectively preservation of the ARM nodes that do not coincided with SLNs would be safe, even if the SLNs are positive. Pathological lymph node status does not account for the occurrence of metastasis in ARM nodes. ARM nodes could be preserved safely, independent of the pathological lymph node status.