Efficacy and safety of herbal medicines for idiopathic Parkinson's disease: a systematic review.

The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines (HMs), as a monotherapy or adjunct therapy, compared to placebo or conventional approaches in the treatment of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials from both conventional and alternative medicine sources. Outcome measures were overall improvement, quality of life, reduction of levodopa dose, and adverse events. Nine studies were included, each testing a different HM. Six of the trials had limited internal validity due to major flaws in design, including the lack of proper randomization; insufficient blinding; unclear inclusive criteria in terms of diagnostic criteria, baseline staging, and duration of disease; lack of proper sample size calculation; and insufficient data analysis. Imbalances in gender and ethnicity among the patients in the included trials were observed. No major adverse events emerged, and no specific pattern was detected from the trials describing such data. In addition to major methodological defects, heterogeneity in (1) HM tested, (2) control treatment, and (3) outcome measure hindered in-depth data analysis and synthesis. Current evidence is insufficient to evaluate the efficacy and safety of various HMs. Further studies with improved trial design and reporting, with assessment on cost-effectiveness, quality of life, and qualitative data are warranted.     

Comparison of the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) and the Taiwan Triage System in predicting resource utilization.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The importance of accurate triage in Taiwan is becoming more apparent with the increasing number of emergency department (ED) patients, and resources for the National Health Insurance becoming constrained. This study compared the ability of the Taiwan triage system (TTS) and the standardized 5-level Emergency Severity Index (ESI) triage system to predict ED resource utilization. METHODS: Patients arriving at the ED were triaged by both TTS and by using a two-page checklist of ESI criteria during the 3-month study period. The ESI triage level was calculated independently to avoid bias. Disease category (trauma vs. nontrauma), length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization data were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 3172 patients with both ESI and TWN evaluation were included. The distributions of ESI ratings within TTS level 1 were: ESI 1, 21.1%; ESI 2, 68.1%; ESI 3, 7.4%; ESI 4, 3.4%; ESI 5, 0%. For TTS level 3, they were: ESI 1, 0.1%; ESI 2, 26.2%; ESI 3, 39.5%; ESI 4, 27.5%; ESI 5, 6.8%. Hospitalization rates were 74.5%, 40.9% and 22.2% in TTS levels 1, 2 and 3, respectively; and were 96.2%, 47.0%, 30.9%, 6.7%and 6.6% in ESI levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. TTS triaged more trauma patients as life-threatening/emergent condition than nontrauma patients (68.8% vs. 48.4%, p < 0.001). Triage by ESI, however, showed no significant difference in the percentage of trauma and nontrauma patients with highly acute conditions (44.2% vs. 46.6%, p = 0.230). Patients with ESI level 4 or 5 have significantly shorter ED LOS than those with ESI level 3. CONCLUSION: ESI produces more accurate discriminating patient acuity, ED LOS and hospitalization rate than TTS. Adopting a standardized 5-level triage tool might improve resource utilization planning of ED practice.     

晶体玻璃体视网膜联合手术治疗复杂性视网膜脱离

目的探讨玻璃体视网膜手术（ｖｉｔｒｅｒｅｔｉｎａｌｓｕｒｇｅｒｙ，ＶＲ术）联合晶体切除／超声粉碎的效果。方法对８１例（８１只眼）应用晶体玻璃体视网膜联合手术（ｌｅｎｔｉｃｕｌａｒ－ｖｉｔｒｅｏｒｅｔｉｎａｌｓｕｒｇｅｒｙ，ＬＶＲ术）治疗的复杂性视网膜脱离进行回顾性分析。结果解剖性成功者６４只眼（７９．０１％），功能性成功者４５只眼（５５．５６％）；手术成功率显著降低的原因是前部增殖性玻璃体视网膜病变（ｐｒｏｌｉｆｅｒａｔｉｖｅｖｉｔｒｅｏ－ｒｅｔｉｎｏｐａｔｈｙ，ＰＶＲ）（成功率４２．８６％，Ｐ＜０．０１）和术中／术后眼内出血（成功率５８．８２％，Ｐ＜０．０２５）。结论ＬＶＲ术是治疗复杂性视网膜脱离的主要方法；显著影响手术预后的因素是前部ＰＶＲ和术中／术后眼内出血。     

人体蠕形螨的生物学研究

用透明胶带法观察蠕形螨在人体面部的寄生、逸出及其在体外的存活能力。结果表明：毛囊蠕形螨（Ｄｅｍｏｄ－ｅｘｆｏｌｉｃｕｌｏｒｕｍ，Ｄ．ｆ．）主要以颚体朝向毛囊底部寄生，且常常有多条群居现象，而皮脂蠕形螨，（Ｄｅｍｏｄｅｘｂｒｅｖｉｓ，Ｄ．ｂ．）一般为单条独居生活。两种人体蠕形螨昼夜均可主动爬出毛囊口出现在皮肤表面，Ｄ．ｆ．以白天１０００～１８００为逸出高峰；Ｄ．ｂ．则以夜间２２００～２００逸出最多。此外，蠕形螨在体外有较强的活动力和存活力。透明胶带法在人体蠕形螨的流行病学调查和生物学研究方面具有较高的应用价值     

Functional recognition of the neuronal tyrosine hydroxylase cAMP regulatory element in different cell types.

Transient transfection of pLB2CAT constructs bearing short synthetic oligonucleotides derived either from the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) promoter or other sources was used to examine functional cAMP regulatory element (CRE) activity in a variety of cell lines. The region containing only the putative TH CRE was found to be as or more effective in conferring cAMP responsiveness onto pLB2CAT (which employs the TK promoter) than the immediate 272 bp region of the TH promoter. Increases in CAT activity of 10- to 20-fold were observed in JEG-3 cells with a single insert of the TH CRE region (-31 to -54) in pLB2CAT, and the presence of a second insert generated only a modest further increase. This construct also responded to cAMP in 4 other cell lines tested but the degree of increase was less dramatic. Inserts containing the consensus 8 bp CRE motif embedded in other natural or artificial contexts served generally as weak functional CREs in all cell lines tested. In vitro analysis revealed that a specific protein-DNA complex apparently containing a single protein with a MW of 45-50 kDa was formed equally well with JEG-3 cell nuclear extract and CRE-bearing-TH and other fragments which produced dramatically different cAMP effects in vivo. These results suggest specificity in the effects of cAMP on different CREs which are dictated by contextual differences.