Orientation and mobility outcome measures

Despite orientation and mobility (O&M) being a significant factor determining quality of life of people with low vision or blindness, there are no gold standard measures or agreement on how to measure O&M performance. In the first part of this systematic review, an inventory of O&M outcome measures used by recent studies to assess the performance of orientation and/or mobility of adults with vision impairment (low vision and blindness) is presented. A wide variety of O&M outcome measures have been implemented in different fields of study, such as epidemiologic research and interventional studies evaluating training, assistive technology, vision rehabilitation and vision restoration. The most frequent aspect of outcome measures is efficiency such as time, distance, speed and percentage of preferred walking speed, followed by obstacle contacts and avoidance, and dis/orientation and veering. Other less commonly used aspects are target identification, safety and social interaction and self-reported outcome measures. Some studies employ sophisticated equipment to capture and analyse O&M performance in a laboratory setting, while others carry out their assessment in real-world indoor or outdoor environments. In the second part of this review, the appropriateness of implementing the identified outcome measures to assess O&M performance in clinical and functional O&M practice is evaluated. Nearly a half of these outcome measures meet all four criteria of face validity (either clinical or functional), responsiveness, reliability and feasibility and have the potential to be implemented in clinical or functional O&M practice. The findings of this review confirm the complicated and dynamic nature of O&M. Multiple measures are required in any evaluation of O&M performance to facilitate holistic assessment of O&M abilities and limitations of each individual.     

中医药干预新型冠状病毒肺炎临床研究方案分析

对中医药防治新型冠状病毒肺炎临床研究方案注册情况进行分析,为提高相关研究设计质量提供参考和建议。检索中国临床试验注册中心网站(www.chictr.org.cn)以及美国临床试验注册中心网站(clinicaltrials.gov),以新型冠状病毒肺炎、2019-nCoV等为检索词,检索新型冠状病毒肺炎中医药相关临床研究方案。按照纳入排除标准筛选文献,并提取研究注册时间、研究目的、研究类型、申办单位、研究对象、样本量、干预措施、评价指标等数据,采用描述性分析方法。共纳入新型冠状病毒肺炎中医药相关研究方案49个,研究负责单位以湖北、北京、浙江等地医院或高等院校为主。研究具体实施单位属地集中在湖北、广东、浙江、河南等地医院。研究设计以干预性试验研究为主(共40个),其中随机平行对照研究30个,非随机对照试验7个,单臂研究2个,连续入组1个;观察性研究6个;卫生服务研究2个;预防性研究1个。总样本量30562例,单个研究样本量最大20000例,最小30例。49个方案的研究对象包括健康人群(3个)、隔离观察人群(1个)、疑似病例(10个)、确诊病例(31个)、康复期病例(4个)。31个拟纳入确诊病例的研究方案中,有16个研究未明确病情分级,3个研究明确排除危重症,4个研究纳入普通型,2个研究纳入轻型、普通型或重型,1个研究纳入轻型和普通型,1个研究纳入普通型或重型,3个研究纳入重型,1个研究纳入重症或危重症。评价的干预措施包括中成药(连花清瘟胶囊/颗粒、藿香正气滴丸/口服液、八宝丹、固表解毒灵、金蒿解热颗粒、复方鱼腥草合剂、金叶败毒颗粒、疏风解毒胶囊、双黄连口服液、痰热清注射液、血必净注射液、热毒宁注射液、喜炎平注射液)、汤药、太极拳疗法。主要疗效指标以退热时间、临床症状缓解、新型冠状病毒核酸转阴、重症转化率、胸部CT影像为主。结果表明中医药防治新冠肺炎的临床研究响应快速,当前注册方案涵盖了疾病预防、治疗和康复全过程。但存在人群定义不清,研究目标不明确,干预方案需要细化,疗效评价指标需要优化等问题;另外,需要考虑疫情救治的实际困难和工作负担,在符合医学伦理条件下,优化流程,提高研究方案的可操作性。     

Lysophosphatidylcholine‐induced cytotoxicity and protection by heparin in mouse brain bEND.3 endothelial cells

A pathological feature in atherosclerosis is the dysfunction and death of vascular endothelial cells (EC). Oxidized low‐density lipoprotein (LDL), known to accumulate in the atherosclerotic arterial walls, impairs endothelium‐dependent relaxation and causes EC apoptosis. A major bioactive ingredient of the oxidized LDL is lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), which at higher concentrations causes apoptosis and necrosis in various EC. There is hitherto no report on LPC‐induced cytotoxicity in brain EC. In this work, we found that LPC caused cytosolic Ca²⁺ overload, mitochondrial membrane potential decrease, p38 activation, caspase 3 activation and eventually apoptotic death in mouse cerebral bEND.3 EC. In contrast to reported reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by LPC in other EC, LPC did not trigger ROS formation in bEND.3 cells. Pharmacological inhibition of p38 alleviated LPC‐inflicted cell death. We examined whether heparin could be cytoprotective: although it could not suppress LPC‐triggered Ca²⁺ signal, p38 activation and mitochondrial membrane potential drop, it did suppress LPC‐induced caspase 3 activation and alleviate LPC‐inflicted cytotoxicity. Our data suggest LPC apoptotic death mechanisms in bEND.3 might involve mitochondrial membrane potential decrease and p38 activation. Heparin is protective against LPC cytotoxicity and might intervene steps between mitochondrial membrane potential drop/p38 activation and caspase 3 activation.