Traditional Chinese Medicine-Guided Dietary Intervention for Male Youth Undergoing Drug Detoxification: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine- (TCM-) guided dietary interventions in improving yang-qi deficiency and yin-blood deficiency TCM syndromes according to the principles of TCM syndrome differentiation theory in male youths undergoing drug detoxification during the rehabilitation period who stayed in a compulsory isolation detoxification center.

Methods: Male youths undergoing drug detoxification who met the criteria to be included in the study were randomly divided into the intervention group ( = 62) and the control group ( = 61) according to a random number table in a 1 : 1 ratio. The intervention group received a TCM-guided diet, and the control group received routine food support.

Practitioners' perspectives on evaluating treatment outcomes in traditional Chinese medicine.

Background: There are no generally accepted standards for evaluation of treatment outcomes in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Pattern differentiation and individual treatments are recognized as the most distinguishing features of TCM. Therefore, how practitioners determine curative effects is an issue worthy of research, though little has been done in this area up to this point.

The role of quality of care and attitude towards disability in the relationship between severity of disability and quality of life: findings from a cross-sectional survey among people with physical disability in China.

Background: People with physical disability (PWPD) is the largest subgroup of people with disability (PWD) in China, but few studies have been conducted among this vulnerable population. The objective of this study was to investigate the level of quality of life (QoL), self-perceived quality of care and support (QOCS), severity of disability and personal attitude towards disability among people with physical disability in China, as well as to identify how QoL can be affected by severity of disability through QOCS and personal attitude towards disability among PWPD.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,853 PWPD in Guangzhou, China.

A new gene ontology-based measure for the functional similarity of gene products.

Background: Although biomedical ontologies have standardized the representation of gene products across species and databases, a method for determining the functional similarities of gene products has not yet been developed.

Methods: We proposed a new semantic similarity measure based on Gene Ontology that considers the semantic influences from all of the ancestor terms in a graph. Our measure was compared with Resnik's measure in two applications, which were based on the association of the measure used with the gene co-expression and the protein-protein interactions.

[Microbial degradation mechanism of disperse azo dye Red 30 by Streptomyces sp. FX645].

One strain, identified as Streptomyces sp. FX645 which was isolated from the sludge collected in a printing and dyeing mill, had high potency of degradation and decolourisation of azo dye Red 30 (AR30). The microbial degradation mechanism on AR30 by strain FX645 was proposed through analyzing the UV-vis spectra and LC-MS spectra of the degradation products and investigating the variations in the concentrations of the degradation products in the culture.

Advising on Preferred Reporting Items for patient-reported outcome instrument development: the PRIPROID.

Objective: The reporting of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) instrument development is vital for both researchers and clinicians to determine its validity, thus, we propose the Preferred Reporting Items for PRO Instrument Development (PRIPROID) to improve the quality of reports.

Methods: Abiding by the guidance published by the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network, we had performed 6 steps for items development: identified the need for a guideline, performed a literature review, obtained funding for the guideline initiative, identified participants, conducted a Delphi exercise and generated a list of PRIPROID items for consideration at the face-to-face meeting.

Results: Twenty three items subheadings under 7 topics were included: title and structured abstract, rationale, objectives, intention, eligibility criteria, conceptual framework, items generation, response options, scoring, times, administrative modes, burden assessment, properties assessment, statistical methods, participants, main results, and additional analysis, summary of evidence, limitations, clinical attentions, and conclusions, item pools or final form, and funding.

[A structural equation model for the WHO health survey data].

Objective: Based on the 2002 WHO health survey data, to explore the latent relationship among self-reported health level, the actual level of health, the social demographic characteristics and the risk factors, and to analyze the influence of the various surveillance indicators on self-reported health and the degree that the self-reported health explained the actual level of health.

Methods: Field tests for various components of the World health survey were conducted in nine countries during 2002, including India, Brazil, Burkina, Hungary, Nepal, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, and Vietnam (29 971). The survey questionnaire included a self-assessment component and anchoring vignette component.

Parallel subgroup design of a randomized controlled clinical trial-comparing the approaches of Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

A new method for the comparison of the treatment efficacy for specific diseases or conditions between Chinese medicine and Western medicine, which serve the same medical aim but are based on substantially different theoretical systems, was identified. Abiding by the principle of parallel subgroup design of a randomized controlled trial (PSD-RCT), participants were recruited following identical inclusion and exclusion criteria and were randomly allocated into two groups to receive treatment using the respective approaches of Chinese medicine and Western medicine. The Chinese medicine group was divided into subgroups according to the theory of Chinese medicine and the Western medicine group was also divided into subgroups according to the theory of Western medicine.

[Dose of glucocorticosteroids in the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome].

Objective: To survey the dose of glucocorticosteroids administered in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and assess the effect of glucocorticosteroid doses in improving the patients' lung function.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted among 225 SARS patients treated in our in 2003. Oxygenation index was used as the effectness index, and the criteria for effectiveness was defiend as increase of the value of OI by 20% or above.

[Development of the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-20 Chinese version (SNOT-20 CV)].

Objective: To develop the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-20 Chinese Version (SNOT-20 CV).

Methods: By introducing, translating, pretesting, adjusting, and performance testing of SNOT-20 inventory, a Chinese draft scale came into being. On the basis of the clinical applications and feedbacks from ten domestic hospitals, the scale was further modified and was more strictly tested in sixty patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, and then its psychometric properties were compared with that of the original edition.

A proposal on auxiliary business insurance for peritoneal dialysis treatment.

Background: The peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy for end stage renal disease (ESRD) is expensive. The main reason for non-acceptance onto dialysis programs is the great cost. In the present study, we design an auxiliary business insurance program to provide the potential ESRD patients who have no access to governmental medical insurance or can not afford the remaining part besides the limited reimbursement for peritoneal dialysis therapy.

[Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of corticosteroid in the treatment of severe SARS in Guangdong province with multi-factor regression analysis].

Objective: To investigate the clinical database of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong province and evaluate the efficacy and safety of corticosteroid in the treatment of severe SARS from December 2002 to December 2003.

Methods: The detail data of 1 278 SARS patients and borderline cases were collected. Four hundred and two confirmed SARS cases were recruited in our study.

[Retrospective discriminant analysis of the clinical diagnostic criteria for serious contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome].

Objective: To analyze the clinical diagnostic criteria for serious severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong retrospectively discriminant with SARS database, and to screen out the sensitive warning factors in predicting the outcome.

Methods: Four hundred and two SARS patients were selected based on the diagnostic criteria for SARS from Ministry of Health, China. Of them, 358 SARS patients were selected as their clinical manifestations conformed to the diagnostic criteria of serious SARS.

Treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome with glucosteroids: the Guangzhou experience.

Study Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety profiles of corticosteroid therapy in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients.

Design: Four hundred one of 1,278 SARS cases treated in Guangzhou China between December 2002 and June 2003 fulfilled the diagnostic criteria issued by the World Health Organization for confirmed identification of SARS. Among them, the diagnosis of critical SARS was defined by criteria of SARS guidelines incorporated with a low oxygenation index (OI) [< 300 mm Hg].

An affected pedigree member analysis of linkage between the dopamine D2 receptor gene TaqI polymorphism and obesity and hypertension.

Background: Dopamine modulates a variety of physiological functions including natriuresis and satiety. We have previously reported that the TaqI polymorphism of the dopamine D2 receptor (DD2R) gene is associated with both blood pressure and obesity indices in a normoglycaemic Hong Kong Chinese population. In this study, we present evidence confirming the linkage between this gene polymorphism, obesity and hypertension.

Development and validation of the Chinese Quality of Life Instrument.

Background: This paper describes the development of the Chinese Quality of Life Instrument (ChQOL) which is a self-report health status instrument. Chinese Medicine relies very much on asking subjective feelings of patients in the process of diagnosis and monitoring of treatment. For thousands of years, Chinese Medicine practitioners have accumulated a good wealth of experiences in asking questions about health of their patients based on the concept of health in Chinese Medicine.

Family-based association study showing that immunoglobulin A nephropathy is associated with the polymorphisms 2093C and 2180T in the 3' untranslated region of the Megsin gene.

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is considered to be a multifactorial disease with genetic and environmental factors contributing to its pathogenesis. The genes involved in susceptibility and progression of the disease have not yet been clearly elucidated. Megsin (SERPINB7) is an important candidate gene, predominantly expressed in glomerular mesangium and upregulated in IgAN.