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Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) complicated with osteoporosis (OP) is a chronic degenerative bone disease commonly found in postmenopausal women. Also, it's an important risk factor affecting the quality of life and mental health of middle-aged and elderly women. Currently, the etiology and pathogenesis of KOA complicated with OP are not clear in Western medicine, and the correlation between KOA and OP is also controversial. Based on the pathological characteristics of KOA and OP and the physiological characteristics of postmenopausal women, this paper summarized the etiology and pathogenesis of KOA complicated with OP into four aspects: Weakness, Stasis, Phlegm, and Depression. Besides, this paper sorted out the progress of modern medicine and original research related to KOA complicated with OP based on these four aspects mentioned above and explored the similarities of etiology and pathogenesis of KOA complicated with OP between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Therefore, it's better to understand the pathogenesis and development of postmenopausal KOA complicated with OP more comprehensively and scientifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upper airway cough syndrome (UACS) is a common chronic cough in children, and it has gradually increased in recent years. Chinese medicine believes that the main location of the disease is nasopharynx, which is closely related to the spleen and kidney. The most common pathological factor is wind, phlegm, deficiency and stasis, and the basic pathogenesis is upward inversion of lung Qi. Chinese medicine treatment mainly focuses on the combination of disease and syndrome differentiation, the combination of body and syndrome differentiation, staged Chinese medicine differentiation and treatment, cold and heat syndrome differentiation, viscera syndrome differentiation, Chinese medicine external treatment and combination of Chinese medicine and western medicine in order to regulate lung Qi. This article mainly elaborates on the differentiation and treatment of Chinese medicine for pediatric UACS, as well as its clinical treatment effects to provide some reference for further research on the treatment of pediatric UACS with Chinese medicine.

Data on benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) are presented: prevalence, etiology and pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment. Clinical observations demonstrating successful recognition and treatment of BPPV are presented.

Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from insulin secretion defects or insulin resistance. The global incidence of DM has been gradually increasing due to improvements in living standards and changes in dietary habits, making it a major non-communicable disease that poses a significant threat to human health and life. The pathogenesis of DM remains incompletely understood till now, and current pharmacotherapeutic interventions are largely inadequate, resulting in relapses and severe adverse reactions. Although DM is not explicitly mentioned in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory and clinical practice, it is often classified as “Xiaoke” due to similarities in etiology, pathogenesis, and symptoms. With its overall regulation, multiple targets, and personalized medication approach, TCM treatment can effectively alleviate the clinical manifestations of DM and prevent or treat its complications. Furthermore, TCM exhibits desirable therapeutic effects with minimal side effects and a favorable safety profile. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison and contrast of Xiaoke and DM by examining the involvement of TCM in their etiology, pathogenesis, treatment guidelines, and other relevant aspects based on classical literature and research reports. The current TCM experimental research on the treatment of DM by lowering blood glucose levels also be generalized. This innovative focus not only illuminates the role of TCM in DM treatment, but also underscores the potential of TCM in DM management.

Introduction. Despite that ovarian carcinosarcoma (OCS) is an extremely rare disease, it is of great medical and social importance by taking into account very high level of overall mortality, recurrence, metastasis, and economic costs.Aim: to summarize current data on various aspects of OCS.Materials and Methods. The search strategy for English written papers published in databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar was based on the following keyword queries: «ovarian carcinosarcoma», «etiology and pathogenesis», «epidemiology», «classification», «clinical picture», «diagnosis», «treatment». The search depth was limited within the years 2010–2022, by prioritizing the search depth within the last 5 years (2017–2022).Results. We found 48 articles in English, published from 2016 to 2022, of which 47 (97.9 %) articles were published within the last 5 years. Scientific data are represented by studies with a small patient sample and with low evidence base. The results of the analysis for identified publications showed a limited, fragmented and inconsistent scientific data both in terms of etiology, pathogenesis and treatment, as well as an impact of OCS stages, age and other risk factors on the likelihood of relapses.Conclusion. The lack of extensive clinical studies along with observed substantial number of controversial issues may be accounted for by OCS low prevalence and complex pathogenesis. Nevertheless, the results obtained during the generalization of scientific knowledge provide a realistic insight into the current state of global science about this medical and social disease and may be used to improve the diagnostics and treatment of OCS patients.

Chronic cough is one of the common diseases in pediatrics, and its occurrence, development and regression are closely related to the theory of xuanfu. Our team believes that the core pathogenesis of this disease is the deficiency of vital qi and the invasion of evil qi, resulting in a loss of control of the xuanfu. Among them, the deficiency of zang-fu organs and the loss of nourishment of the xuanfu are the basis of the disease; the accumulation of phlegm and food and the stagnation of the xuanfu are the root cause of the disease; the wind evil triggers the xuanfu to be the cause of the disease. In children, the lung, spleen and kidney are often deficient, making it easy for the xuanfu to lose its nourishment, which in turn affects the function of the xuanfu in transporting fluids, and when the xuanfu is stagnant due to deficiency, evil qi has an opportunity to take advantage of it;In addition, if the spleen and stomach are not nourished, and the transportation and transformation are not normal, it is easy to accumulate dampness and produce phlegm, or if food stagnates in the middle jiao and stagnates in the xuanfu channel, it will affect the smooth flow of qi and lay the hidden danger for the development of disease;If the cough is triggered by wind pathogen, the internal and external evil qi will interact with each other and the xuanfu will malfunction, resulting in the failure of lung qi to diffuse and purify and coughing, and the condition will linger. In treatment, our team adopted the principle of promoting the situation and removing the stagnation in the xuanfu by dispelling wind evil, resolving phlegm and removing stagnation, and reinforcing vital qi and supplementing deficiency to open up the xuanfu. At the same time, we pay attention to the application of the characteristic medicine to unblock the xuanfu, especially the medicine to regulate qi to unblock the xuanfu, the medicine to dredge the meridians to unblock the xuanfu and the medicine to invigorate the blood to unblock the xuanfu, so as to restore the function of the xuanfu of the lung, then the disease can be cured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dampness is one of the important external pathogens in Chinese medicine, and with the changes in peoples living habits, dampness syndrome is becoming more and more common. Due to the different characteristics and functions of different parts of the body, the pathogenesis of dampness is not the same when it attacks, so it is helpful to examine it before clinical treatment. Dampness forms through inner unbalance or invades through external environment. This paper discusses the clinical manifestations of dampness in various parts of the body and highlights the similarities and differences in the pathogenic mechanisms of dampness, taking into account the pathogenic characteristics of dampness as a clue for the external dampness invasion pathway from the surface to the inside. In addition, this paper also explains the disease mechanism of dampness syndrome in the context of western medical research, so as to provide research evidence for the integration of Chinese and western medicine and to improve medical treatment in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from insulin secretion defects or insulin resistance. The global incidence of DM has been gradually increasing due to improvements in living standards and changes in dietary habits, making it a major non-communicable disease that poses a significant threat to human health and life. The pathogenesis of DM remains incompletely understood till now, and current pharmacotherapeutic interventions are largely inadequate, resulting in relapses and severe adverse reactions. Although DM is not explicitly mentioned in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory and clinical practice, it is often classified as "Xiaoke" due to similarities in etiology, pathogenesis, and symptoms. With its overall regulation, multiple targets, and personalized medication approach, TCM treatment can effectively alleviate the clinical manifestations of DM and prevent or treat its complications. Furthermore, TCM exhibits desirable therapeutic effects with minimal side effects and a favorable safety profile. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison and contrast of Xiaoke and DM by examining the involvement of TCM in their etiology, pathogenesis, treatment guidelines, and other relevant aspects based on classical literature and research reports. The current TCM experimental research on the treatment of DM by lowering blood glucose levels also be generalized. This innovative focus not only illuminates the role of TCM in DM treatment, but also underscores the potential of TCM in DM management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The denotation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) terminology is one of the core issues in TCM theoretical studies. Fundamentally, it is about the relationship between "term and matter". Studying TCM terminology is of significant importance as the denotation of TCM terminology tends to change between "analogy" and "definition". The denotation could refer to the "definition" in some cases and "analogy" in others, causing confusion and inconsistency. This paper takes terminology of TCM etiology and pathogenesis as examples to analyze the different forms of "definition" and "analogy" of TCM etiology and pathogenesis, then analyzes the transition mechanism of cognition from "definition" to "analogy" and from "analogy" to "definition" based on the similarity of metaphor. After analyzing the rationale of "definition" and "analogy" in the terminology, it is concluded that TCM has no independent system of language and adopts single-focus presentation of metaphorical cognition. These two features explain the underlying rationale. This paper also analyzes whether wind and cold or bacteria and virus are the etiologies of exogenous disease. It is stated that the etiologies should be "something like wind", "something like cold" and "something like damp" and expounds the significant of studying TCM language from the perspective of metaphorical cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toxin damaging the brain collaterals and toxin damaging the vessels and collaterals are important modern interpretations of the occurrence and development of stroke. The theory that "toxins can destroy the physique and damage the brain collaterals" also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of symptomatic cerebral artery stenosis. This paper explains the disease occurrence from healthy qi deficiency, analyzes the influence of fire toxin, turbid toxin and other toxin damages on cerebral vascular stenosis, as well as the pathological development from "collateral deficiency" to "collateral stagnation" and further to "collateral damage". It was concluded that "collateral deficiency and toxin damage" is the core pathogenesis of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (symptomatic cerebral artery stenosis). Parallel treatment of strengthening the deficiency, eliminating toxins, and dredging collaterals should be applied at specific stages. Invigorating qi and eliminating toxins should be distinguished from clearing heat and eliminating toxins. Besides, stage-tailored treatment should also be emphasized, which may provide reference for clinical treatment of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) are a type of cell signaling proteins that are mostly produced by macrophages. They are essential for a variety of biological activities involved in normal development. Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) is the newest and youngest member of the FGF endocrine subfamily, along with fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). In this study, we conduct a systematic review of all known literature to identify the risk of elevated FGF23 in the cardiovascular system. The analysis includes the risk of cardiovascular disease for both primary and secondary causes of elevated FGF23, such as chronic renal insufficiency. This systematic literature review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) standards. A total of 4,793 records were identified across different databases. After that, 273 records were retrieved and reviewed. After carefully examining the titles and summaries of each report, 249 additional entries were eliminated. About 24 studies from the remaining records were chosen by primary and secondary authors for screening, and they performed a quality assessment using common quality check tools. Finally, this review included 11 studies. Following a thorough analysis, we came to the conclusion that FGF23 can be regarded as a novel biomarker and should be included in the group of heart biomarkers that have already been identified, such as B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), for the early identification of a variety of highly prevalent cardiovascular disorders., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2024, Amaravadi et al.)

Liver cirrhosis remains a major public health issue. Liver fibrosis leading to cirrhosis is the terminal stage of various chronic liver diseases. Inflammatory cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis. Patients with cirrhosis often have hematological abnormalities, such as anemia and thrombocytopenia, which have multifactorial etiologies. Anemia in cirrhosis could be related to bleeding leading to iron deficiency anemia or other nutritional anemia such as vitamin B12 and folate deficiency. The pathophysiology of thrombocytopenia in liver cirrhosis has been postulated to range from splenic sequestration to bone marrow suppression from toxic agents, such as alcohol. It often complicates management due to the risk of bleeding with severely low platelets. This review aimed to highlight pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis, hematological abnormalities in liver cirrhosis, and their clinical significance., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Lingas et al.)

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas, which can progress to severe AP, with a high risk of death. It is one of the most complicated and clinically challenging of all disorders affecting the abdomen. The main causes of AP are gallstone migration and alcohol abuse. Other causes are uncommon, controversial and insufficiently explained. The disease is primarily characterized by inappropriate activation of trypsinogen, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and destruction of secretory cells. According to the revised Atlanta classification, severity of the disease is categorized into three levels: Mild, moderately severe and severe, depending upon organ failure and local as well as systemic complications. Various methods have been used for predicting the severity of AP and its outcome, such as clinical evaluation, imaging evaluation and testing of various biochemical markers. However, AP is a very complex disease and despite the fact that there are of several clinical, biochemical and imaging criteria for assessment of severity of AP, it is not an easy task to predict its subsequent course. Therefore, there are existing controversies regarding diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, their effectiveness and complications in the treatment of AP. The main reason being the fact, that the pathophysiologic mechanisms of AP have not been fully elucidated and need to be studied further. In this editorial article, we discuss the efficacy of the existing diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, complications and treatment failure in the management of AP., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article., (©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the sixth most prevalent cancer of the gastrointestinal system but the most prevalent cancer of the biliary tract. This tumor is a highly fatal condition. The importance of early diagnosis cannot be overstated because GBC develops quietly with late detection. Several genetic and environmental variables have been associated with the onset of GBC. Cholelithiasis and chronic inflammation from the biliary tract and parasite infections are prime examples of environmental factors that significantly influence the development of GBC. Abnormal pancreaticobiliary duct junction and biliary cysts are examples of congenital causes. In the past decade, new imaging technologies and a more radical and aggressive surgical approach have improved patient outcomes and aided prolonged survival for GBC patients. This review article focuses on the epidemiology of GBC, its risk factors, and clinical characteristics., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2022, Halaseh et al.)