Medicine
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Previous clinical trials have reported that ranibizumab can be used to treat diabetic retinopathy (DR) effectively. However, no study has been conducted to evaluate its efficacy for patients with DR systematically. Thus, this study will specifically and systematically assess the efficacy and safety of ranibizumab for DR. ⋯ The findings of this study may provide theoretical basis for clinical practice refer and may benefit more patients with DR.
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Depression is a prevalent disorder for patients with stroke. Clinical researches indicate that sertraline is utilized to treat post-stroke depression (PSD) effectively. However, no systematic review has investigated this issue yet presently. Thus, this study aims to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of sertraline for patients with PSD. ⋯ This systematic review will not need any ethical approval, because it will not analyze any individual patient data. The findings of this study are expected to disseminate at peer-reviewed journals.
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Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) have been commonly used in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea in East Asia. Several systematic reviews have been conducted to assess the clinical efficacy of CHM in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. However, their comparative efficacy is still unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct a network meta-analysis (NMA) to systematically compare the advantages of different CHM in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. ⋯ Ethical approval is not required as this NMA is based on published studies. The completed NMA will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
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Severity stratification and prognostic prediction at early stage is crucial for reducing the rates of mortality of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). We aim to investigate the predicting performance of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and red-cell distribution width (RDW) combined with severity scores (sequential organ failure assessment [SOFA], bed-side index for severity of AP [BISAP], Ranson criteria, and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II [APACHE II]) for severe AP (SAP) and mortality. A total of 406 patients diagnosed with AP admitted in a tertiary teaching hospital were enrolled. ⋯ RDW (OR = 1.739), SOFA (OR = 1.554), BISAP (OR = 2.145), and Ranson (OR = 1.434) were all independent risk factors for predicting SAP, while RDW (OR = 7.361) and hematocrit (OR = 0.329) were independent risk factors for predicting mortality by logistic regression model. NLR, PLR, RDW, and BUN indicated good predictive value for SAP and mortality, while RDW had the highest discriminatory capacity. RDW is a convenient and reliable indicator for prediction not only SAP, but also mortality.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Clinical application of high-resolution MRI in combination with digital subtraction angiography in the diagnosis of vertebrobasilar artery dissecting aneurysm: An observational study (STROBE compliant).
Vertebrobasilar artery dissecting aneurysm (VBA-DA) is associated with serious complications and poor prognosis in patients. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI) is a noninvasive method for the diagnosis of VBA-DA. VBA-DAs were classified according to the feature of HR-MRI in combination with digital subtraction angiography (DSA), and the clinical outcomes of different types of VBA-DAs were analyzed. ⋯ The patients with stenosis VBA-DAs had poorer clinical outcomes than classical types and better clinical outcomes than spiral and hemorrhagic types. The detection of intramural hematoma and dissection flap using HR-MRI provides basic information for the diagnosis of VBA-DA. Individualized therapeutic strategies can be designed for the treatment of VBA-DAs with different features of DSA and HR-MRI.