Chinese herbal medicines for mild cognitive impairment: A protocol for meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), as a common neurodegenerative aging disease representing an intermediate stage between normal cognitive functioning and dementia, poses an excessive burden on health care. The clinical benefit of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) for MCI remains inconclusive. This study is aimed at evaluating the efficacy and acceptability of CHMs through meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA).

Liver fibrosis and hepatic stellate cells: Etiology, pathological hallmarks and therapeutic targets.

Liver fibrosis is a reversible wound-healing process aimed at maintaining organ integrity, and presents as the critical pre-stage of liver cirrhosis, which will eventually progress to hepatocellular carcinoma in the absence of liver transplantation. Fibrosis generally results from chronic hepatic injury caused by various factors, mainly viral infection, schistosomiasis, and alcoholism; however, the exact pathological mechanisms are still unknown. Although numerous drugs have been shown to have antifibrotic activity and in animal models, none of these drugs have been shown to be efficacious in the clinic.

[Epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations and clinicopathologic correlation in 309 patients with non-small cell lung cancer].

Objective: To investigate the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation profile and related clinicopathological features in Chinese patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

Methods: Optimized oligonucleotide probe method was applied to detect EGFR mutations involving exons 18 - 21 using formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue specimens of 309 NSCLC patients. The relationship between EGFR mutations and clinicopathological features were analyzed.