[Applicability of odor analyzer based on study of processed ginger products and GC-MS validation].

Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer has been gradually applied in the study on the "odor" of Chinese medicine because of its ability to associate volatile substances in the sample with "odor", but its applicability is not clear. In this article, processed ginger products--dried ginger, roasted ginger, and carbonized ginger were chosen as examples to study the volatile chemical components, and the applied scope and accuracy of Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer were verified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS). Components in ten batches of ginger from different producing places were detected by GC-MS and Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer. Principal component analysis(PCA) and discriminant factor analysis(DFA) were performed to investigate the effects of producing place and processing degree on dried ginger, roasted ginger, and carbonized ginger. The results showed that the processing degree had significant impact on the processed ginger products, while producing place was not significant to the processed ginger products. At the same time, 42 and 45 compounds were detected by Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer and GC-MS, respectively, of which 29 compounds were common detected, with a coincidence rate of 64.4%. This result indicated that compared with GC-MS, Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer had certain referential value in the qualitative analysis. Heracles Ⅱ rapid electronic odor analyzer, with the characteristics of convenience, high efficiency, and accuracy in processing data, has certain advantages in the "odor" research aiming to comprehensively evaluate volatile substances, and has a good application prospect in the quality control of Chinese medicine and its processed products.

Efficiency analysis of using tailored individual doses of radioiodine and fine tuning using a low-dose antithyroid drug in the treatment of Graves' disease.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of using tailored individual doses of radioiodine (¹³¹I) and fine tuning using low-dose antithyroid drug (ATD) in the treatment of Graves' disease, and an attempt to establish a therapeutic strategy that can keep both high rate of euthyroidism and low incidence of hypothyroidism. METHODS: The dose of radioiodine was calculated using the calculated dose formula, and low-dose ATD was used as a way of fine tuning during follow-up. The intended dose of radioiodine was modified according to the patient's age at radioiodine therapy, thyroid size, and duration of hyperthyroidism before radioiodine therapy in the study group; it was set as 2.96 MBq/g of thyroid in the control group. Twenty patients with Graves' disease were nonrandomly assigned to the control group and 98 patients with Graves' disease to the study group. The outcomes, which included euthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and persistent hyperthyroidism, were determined according to the patients' states at the end of follow-up. RESULTS: In the study group, 74 patients (75.5%) achieved the euthyroid state, six patients (6.1%) became hypothyroid, and 18 patients (18.4%) remained hyperthyroid. The rate of euthyroidism was statistically different between the study group and the control group (75.5 vs. 50%, P=0.03). Of 98 patients with Graves' disease in the study group, 19 patients were additionally treated with ATD during follow-up, and 12 patients achieved euthyroidism. In different age groups or duration of hyperthyroidism groups, the rate of euthyroidism was not statistically different among subgroups of goiter grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 (P>0.05). Similarly, in different age groups or duration of hyperthyroidism groups, the incidence of hypothyroidism was not statistically different among subgroups of goiter grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 (P>0.05). However, binary logistic regression analysis showed that thyroid size was associated with overtreatment and undertreatment in our study. CONCLUSION: Individual doses of radioiodine, adjusted according to the patient's age, thyroid size, and duration of hyperthyroidism, combined with low-dose ATD for some patients, 1 month or more after radioiodine therapy, was an effective method for treating Graves' disease. Our data showed that using tailored individual doses of radioiodine and fine tuning using low-dose ATD may well be a way to keep both high rate of euthyroidism and low incidence of hypothyroidism. The dose of radioiodine should be decreased a little for small goiter and increased a little for large goiter on the basis of our treatment protocol in future study.