Effectiveness and Safety of Umbilicus Treatment with Modified Dinggui Powder () in Patients with Chronic Nonbacterial Prostatitis: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Chinese herbal external umbilicus treatment with Modified Dinggui Powder (, MDGP) in patients with chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CNP). METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted among 72 patients with CNP. Participants were randomly allocated to a treatment group and a placebo group using computer software in a 1:1 ratio, and received either MDGP external umbilicus treatment (MDGP group, 36 cases) or placebo control groupl (36 cases) at acupoints Shenque (CV 8), twice a week for 4 weeks. In addtion, patients all received herbal medicine treatment twice a day for 4 weeks. The primary outcomes was the US National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Scores Index (NIH-CPSI) with a questionnaire at weeks 2 and 4. The secondary outcomes including prostatic fluid examination (white blood cells and lecithin bodies), the clinical efficacy evaluation, and the adverse events were also assessed during the entire trial. RESULTS: The NIH-CPSI scores regarding pain or discomfort scores showed greater improvement in the MDGP group than placebo control group at weeks 2 (P0.001) and week 4 (P0.004), respectively. NIH-CPSI scores of symptom severity, total scores, the amount of leukocytes number in the prostatic fifluid in the MDGP group were significantly improved (P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the urinary symptoms, quality of life, lecithin and other scores between two groups (P>0.05). The clinical effective rate was 73.53% (25/34) in the MDGP group, which was significally higher than the placebo control group with 48.39% (25/31, P<0.05). Patients were blinded successfully, and no serious adverse effects were found during the trial. CONCLUSION: A 4-week course of umbilicus treatment with modified Dinggui Powder seems to relieve pain and symptom severity effectively and increase the amount of leukocytes number in patients with CNP (Trial registration No. ChiCTR1800014687).

Ultrasonic characteristic of phase shift of layered structure and the determination of layer thickness.

For the ultrasonic normally-incident reflected method, the phase shift of the mid-layer in a multi-layered structure has been theoretically derived and expressed as a sum form of the measured phase shift and the crossing phase shift. Using the sum form, the characteristics of phase shifts of a linear-viscoelastic layer on the two different elastic substrates of half-space of the infinite extent are first analyzed. By the replacement of phase shift of the upper elastic substrate with the corresponding measured phase shift, the substitution function of the input acoustical impedance of a next inaccessible layer has been developed. It is concluded that the corresponding relation of the layer phase shift with the minima/maxima of the absolute value of the input acoustical impedance of the inaccessible layer is repeated by those of the substitution function. Without giving the substrate thickness and considering the introduced misalignment and distortion problems, based on the corresponding relation, the thickness of the inaccessible layer can be determined by searching the frequencies of the minima/ maxima of the absolute value of the substitution function.