Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research
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Review Meta Analysis
Efficacy of Ligustrazine Injection as Adjunctive Therapy for Angina Pectoris: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
BACKGROUND In the past decades, a large number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the efficacy of ligustrazine injection combined with conventional antianginal drugs for angina pectoris have been reported. However, these RCTs have not been evaluated in accordance with PRISMA systematic review standards. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ligustrazine injection as adjunctive therapy for angina pectoris. ⋯ Sensitivity and subgroup analysis also confirmed that ligustrazine injection had better effect in the treatment of angina pectoris as adjunctive therapy. CONCLUSIONS The 11 eligible RCTs indicated that ligustrazine injection as adjunctive therapy was more effective than antianginal drugs alone. However, due to the low quality of included RCTs, more rigorously designed RCTs were still needed to verify the effects of ligustrazine injection as adjunctive therapy for angina pectoris.
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Review Meta Analysis
Efficacy and Safety of Tranexamic Acid in Bilateral Total Knee Replacement: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review.
BACKGROUND Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been well documented to reduce blood loss and transfusion requirements in patients undergoing unilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, the efficacy and safety of TXA in simultaneous bilateral TKA have not been clearly defined. The aim of our study was to systematically review the existing evidence regarding the role of TXA in patients undergoing simultaneous bilateral TKA. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS The intravenous use of TXA in patients undergoing simultaneous bilateral TKA is effective and safe and results in significantly reduced estimated blood loss and transfusion rates. No significant difference was observed in the incidence of side effects. Due to the limitations in the evidence quality of current meta-analyses, well-conducted, larger, high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are required.
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The aim of this study was to predict the emergency admission of elderly stroke patients in Shanghai by using a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network. ⋯ Outdoor temperature and related meteorological parameters are associated with stroke attack. The absolute temperature difference and the weather types have adverse effects on stroke. Further study is needed to determine if other meteorological factors such as pollutants also play important roles in stroke attack.
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Review Meta Analysis
Diagnostic Accuracy of Serum CA19-9 in Patients with Cholangiocarcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
BACKGROUND Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a relatively rare cancer worldwide; however, its incidence is extremely high in Asia. Numerous studies reported that serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) plays a role in the diagnosis of CCA patients. However, published data are inconclusive. ⋯ The area under SROC curve was 0.8300. The subgroup analyses based on different control type, geographical location, and sample size revealed that the diagnostic accuracy of CA19-9 tends to be same in different control type, but showed low sensitivity in European patients and small size group. CONCLUSIONS Serum CA19-9 is a useful non-invasive biomarker for CCA detection and may become a clinically useful tool to identify high-risk patients.
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Comparative Study
Combined Use of Etomidate and Dexmedetomidine Produces an Additive Effect in Inhibiting the Secretion of Human Adrenocortical Hormones.
BACKGROUND The direct effects of etomidate were investigated on the secretion of cortisol and its precursors by dispersed cells from the adrenal cortex of human of animals. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is an anesthetic agent that may interfere with cortisol secretion via an unknown mechanism, such as involving inhibition of 11b-hydroxylase and the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme system. The aim of this study was to determine whether dexmedetomidine (DEX) has a similar inhibitory effect on adrenocortical function, and whether combined use of etomidate (ETO) and DEX could produce a synergistic action in inhibiting the secretion of human adrenocortical hormones. ⋯ In the presence of DEX, E0 was 8.57-0.0247×(CDEX-4.6), and the other parameters remained unchanged. All parameters but γ were natural logarithm conversion values. CONCLUSIONS Combined use of DEX and ETO reduced ETO's inhibitory E0 (basal secretion) of CORT from human adrenocortical cells in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that combined use of ETO and DEX produced an additive effect in inhibiting the secretion of human adrenocortical hormones.