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Background Patients often experience postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) because of the use of opioids for anaesthesia and analgesia during the procedure. Some clinical trials have demonstrated that acupuncture-assisted anaesthesia (AAA) reduces opioid consumption and prevents PONV. Although several studies have been conducted on AAA, its safety and efficacy in AF catheter ablation remain unclear due to small sample sizes and a paucity of methodologically rigorous designs. Therefore, this trial was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of AAA in reducing PONV and morphine hydrochloride consumption during catheter ablation.Methods This single-centre, patient-blinded, randomised, non-penetrating sham-controlled trial will be conducted in China. A total of 100 patients will be randomly assigned to the AAA and conventional anaesthesia (CA) groups in a ratio of 1:1. The patients will receive AAA or CA plus sham acupuncture during catheter ablation and will be followed up for 30 days. The primary outcomes include the total amount of morphine hydrochloride consumed during catheter ablation and PONV within the first 24 hours after the procedure. The secondary outcomes include pain, nausea and vomiting, anxiety, patient’s ability to cope during catheter ablation, AF recurrence and quality of life, as assessed using the numeric rating scale. Adverse events will be recorded and their influence will be analysed at the end of the trial.Discussion This study will help in evaluating the safety and efficacy of AAA applied for AF catheter ablation in reducing opioid doses during the procedure and the occurrence of PONV.Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences if possible.Trial registration number ChiCTR 2100042646; Chinese Clinical Trial Registry.

Introduction Traditional Chinese exercise therapy, as one of the commonly used exercise interventions for the treatment of type 2 diabetes patients in China, has been proven effective by many clinical practices, but there is still a lack of evidence-based research. This study aims to integrate clinical randomised controlled correlations via network meta-analysis evidence.Methods and analysis The comprehensive search included Chinese and other language databases such as the MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Excerpt Medica Database (EMBASE), The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, China Scientific Journal Database (VIP), China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM). Clinical randomised controlled trials of four traditional Chinese exercise therapies in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, including Tai Chi, Ba Duan Jin, Yi Jin Jing and Wu Qin Xi were retrieved. The search time was conducted from the establishment of the database to 30 October 2020. Two researchers screened the documents that met the inclusion criteria, extracted data according to the preset table, and evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies according to the quality evaluation tools recommended by the Cochrane System Reviewer Manual V.5.1. The R language and ADDIS statistical software were used to conduct statistics and analysis of intervention measures.PROSPERO registration number CRD42020214786

Background The satisfactory prognostic indicator of gastric cancer (GC) patients after surgery is still lacking. Perioperative plasma extracellular vesicular programmed cell death ligand-1 (ePD-L1) has been demonstrated as a potential prognosis biomarker in many types of cancers. The prognostic value of postoperative plasma ePD-L1 has not been characterized.Methods We evaluated the prognostic value of preoperative, postoperative and change in plasma ePD-L1, as well as plasma soluble PD-L1, in short-term survival of GC patients after surgery. The Kaplan-Meier survival model and Cox proportional hazards models for both univariate and multivariate analyzes were used. And the comparison between postoperative ePD-L1 and conventional serum biomarkers (carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 19–9 (CA19-9) and CA72-4) in prognostic of GC patients was made.Results The prognostic value of postoperative ePD-L1 is superior to that of preoperative ePD-L1 on GC patients after resection, and also superior to that of conventional serum biomarkers (CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4). The levels of postoperative ePD-L1 and ePD-L1 change are independent prognostic factors for overall survival and recurrence free survival of GC patients. High plasma level of postoperative ePD-L1 correlates significantly with poor survival, while high change in ePD-L1 level brings the significant survival benefit.Conclusions The level of plasma postoperative ePD-L1 could be considered as a candidate prognostic biomarker of GC patients after resection.