Search

Background. Chinese medicinal properties (CMP) are an important part of the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Quantitative research on the properties of TCMs is of great significance to deepen the understanding and application of the theory of drug properties and promoting the modernization of TCMs. However, these studies are limited to strong subjectivity or distinguish different drug properties based on certain indicators since CMP studies are diverse. Objective. To realize quantitative comparison of same medicinal properties of different Chinese medicines. Method. To solve the above problem, we proposed and explored quantification of Chinese medicinal properties (QMP) and the quantification value of medicinal properties “ R ”. The correlation between primary metabolites and “cold-hot” medicinal properties was explored on the premise of material basis of Chinese herbal medicines and Fisher’s analysis. Based on indicators related to “cold-hot” medicinal properties, we utilized quantitative values “ R ” to characterize the strength or weakness of “cold-hot” medicinal properties. Results. According to QMP, the same medicinal properties were quantified and compared by quantification value of medicinal properties that expressed by alphabet “ R ”. The general theoretical formula of “ R ” deduced is R = l × cos θ / L = ∑ i = 1 n j i p i / ∑ i = 1 n p i 2 , in which n ≥ 1 . In the light of formula of “ R ” and indicators related to “cold-hot” medicinal properties, we got “ R ” value of “cold-cool” and “warm-hot” medicinal properties. “ R ” values of “cold-cool” medicinal properties of Phellodendri chinensis cortex, Coptidis rhizoma, and Menthae haplocalycis herba were 0.63, 1.00, and 0.49, respectively. The result showed that Coptidis rhizoma is the most “cold-cool”, followed by Phellodendri chinensis cortex, with Menthae haplocalycis herba is the weakest in the three Chinese medicines, consistent with cognition of TCM theory. Conclusion. QMP has certain guiding significance for the quantification of “cold and hot” drug properties. “ R ” is feasible to realize the quantitative comparison of the same drug properties of different traditional Chinese medicine, which is helpful to promote process of modern Chinese medicine construction.

Accurate and fast prediction of nonstationary time series is challenging and of great interest in both practical and academic areas. In this paper, an online sequential extreme learning machine with new weighted strategy is proposed for nonstationary time series prediction. First, a new leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation error estimation for online sequential data is proposed based on inversion of block matrix. Second, a new weighted strategy based on the proposed LOO error estimation is proposed. This strategy ranks the samples’ importance by means of the LOO error of each new added sample and then assigns various weights. Performance comparisons of the proposed method with other existing algorithms are presented based on chaotic and real-world nonstationary time series data. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the classical ELM and OS-ELM in terms of generalization performance and numerical stability.

Objectives. This study is to assess the prognostic value ofTc99m-pertechnetate thyroid scintigraphy for predicting the outcomes of fixed low dose of radioiodine therapy (RIT) in a cohort of Chinese Graves’ disease (GD) patients.Materials and Methods. This is a retrospective study of GD patients who received RIT with a single dose of radioiodine (5 mCi). All the patients receivedTc99m-pertechnetate thyroid scintigraphy prior to RIT. Thyroid mass,Tc99m-pertechnetate uptake, gender, age at diagnosis, duration of the disease, ophthalmopathy, and serum levels of FT4, FT3, TT4, and TT3 prior to RIT were analyzed as potential interference factors for outcomes of RIT.Results. One hundred and eighteen GD patients who completed RIT were followed up for 12 months. The outcomes (euthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism) were found to be significantly associated with thyroid mass andTc99m-pertechnetate uptake. Patients with thyroid mass ≤ 40.1 g orTc99m-pertechnetate uptake ≤ 15.2% had higher treatment success.Conclusions. A fixed low dose of 5 mCi radioiodine seems to be practical and effective for the treatment of Chinese GD patients with thyroid mass ≤ 40.1 g andTc99m-pertechnetate uptake ≤ 15.2%. This study demonstratesTc99m-pertechnetate thyroid scintigraphy is an important prognostic factor for predicting the outcomes of RIT.

Background.This study was made to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicines, Reduning injection, and a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) granule, in patients with severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) by conducting a prospective, controlled, and randomized trial.Methods.355 severe HFMD patients were randomly assigned to receive conventional therapy alone, Reduning injection plus conventional therapy, or TCM enema plus conventional therapy for 7–10 days.Results.There was no significant difference in the incidence of major complications between the groups. Median time to fever clearance was 20 hours (95% CI: 6.0–25.0) for conventional therapy recipients, 18 hours (95% CI: 4.0–24.0) for Reduning combination-treated patients, and 6 hours (95% CI: 4.0–16.0) for TCM combination-treated patients. Only the difference in time to fever clearance between TCM combination group and conventional group reached statistical significance (P=0.048). Reduning combination group showed a significant reduction in sedative administration compared with conventional therapy group (P=0.008). No HFMD-related death and no important adverse events were observed.Conclusions.Reduning injection plus conventional therapy significantly reduced the concomitant use of sedatives, which may help decrease HFMD-related neurologic complications in children. TCM effectively reduced time to fever clearance and may become a complementary therapy for relieving the symptoms of severe HFMD.

Background. Herb-derived compound andrographolide sulfonate (called Xiyanping injection) recommended control measure for severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) by the Ministry of Health (China) during the 2010 epidemic. However, there is a lack of good quality evidence directly comparing the efficacy of Andrographolide Sulfonate combination therapy with conventional therapy.Methods. 230 patients were randomly assigned to 7–10 days of Andrographolide Sulfonate 5–10 mg/Kg/day and conventional therapy, or conventional therapy alone.Results. The major complications occurred less often after Andrographolide Sulfonate (2.6% versus 12.1%; risk difference [RD], 0.94; 95% CI, 0.28–1.61;P=0.006). Median fever clearance times were 96 hours (CI, 80 to 126) for conventional therapy recipients and 48 hours (CI, 36 to 54) for Andrographolide Sulfonate combination-treated patients (χ2=16.57,P<0.001). The two groups did not differ in terms of HFMD-cause mortality (P=1.00) and duration of hospitalization (P=0.70). There was one death in conventional therapy group. No important adverse event was found in Andrographolide Sulfonate combination therapy group.Conclusions. The addition of Andrographolide Sulfonate to conventional therapy reduced the occurrence of major complications, fever clearance time, and the healing time of typical skin or oral mucosa lesions in children with severe HFMD.

Stem cells have been proposed as a promising therapy for treating stroke. While several studies have demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of stem cells, the exact mechanism remains elusive. Molecular imaging provides the possibility of the visual representation of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level. In order to facilitate research efforts to understand the stem cells therapeutic mechanisms, we need to further develop means of monitoring these cells noninvasively, longitudinally and repeatedly. Because of tissue depth and the blood-brain barrier (BBB), in vivo imaging of stem cells therapy for stroke has unique challenges. In this review, we describe existing methods of tracking transplanted stem cells in vivo, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine imaging, and optical imaging (OI). Each of the imaging techniques has advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we describe multimodality imaging strategies as a more comprehensive and potential method to monitor transplanted stem cells for stroke.

With the speeding tendency of aging society, human neurological disorders have posed an ever increasing threat to public health care. Human neurological diseases include ischemic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury, which are induced by impairment or specific degeneration of different types of neurons in central nervous system. Currently, there are no more effective treatments against these diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is focused on, which can provide new strategies for the therapy in neurological disorders. TCM, including Chinese herb medicine, acupuncture, and other nonmedication therapies, has its unique therapies in treating neurological diseases. In order to improve the treatment of these disorders by optimizing strategies using TCM and evaluate the therapeutic effects, we have summarized molecular imaging, a new promising technology, to assess noninvasively disease specific in cellular and molecular levels of living models in vivo, that was applied in TCM therapy for neurological diseases. In this review, we mainly focus on applying diverse molecular imaging methodologies in different TCM therapies and monitoring neurological disease, and unveiling the mysteries of TCM.

Membrane distillation is a thermally driven membrane process for seawater desalination and purification at moderate temperatures and pressures. A hydrophobic micro-porous membrane is used in this process, which separates hot and cold water, allowing water vapor to pass through; while restricting the movement of liquid water, due to its hydrophobic nature. This paper provides an experimental investigation of heat and mass transfer in tubular membrane module for water desalination. Different operating parameters have been examined to determine the mass transport mechanism of water vapor. Based on the experimental results, the effects of operating parameters on permeate flux and the heat transfer analysis have been presented and discussed in details.

In recent years, a companion diagnosis for prediction of the effectiveness and the side effects after administration of drugs has become very important to decide a therapeutic strategy. In USA, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends the development of the companion diagnostic agent simultaneously with a new drug development. Nuclear medicine imaging using positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which visualizes target molecules, is able to detect biological and biochemical changes in the earlier phases of diseases differing from an anatomical imaging using X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Radiolabeled tracers for the nuclear medicine have great potential to provide a lot of information about pathology of individual patients depending on characteristics of each tracer and could be the companion diagnostics. Accordingly, molecular imaging and imaging-based therapy using radiolabeled tracers must contribute to the realization of personalized medicine. 11 selected papers are published in this special issue. Most of them deal with important topics in nuclear medicine. Below is a brief introduction to some of these papers in this special issue. In cerebral imaging, imaging of tau protein is useful for presymptomatic diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of Alzheimer's disease because the presence of neurofibrillary tangles, composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, is well correlated with neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. H. Watanabe et al. summarized tau imaging probes for PET and SPECT. In oncology, molecular targeted therapies using drugs, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, become the mainstream in cancer therapy. It is important to estimate the target molecule status in cancer tissues and predict therapeutic efficacy. M. Yoshimoto et al. introduced new radiolabeled tyrosine kinase inhibitors and antibodies for theragnostic imaging and their clinical application in molecular targeted therapy. In the point of view from early detection of response to therapy, apoptosis imaging could be useful because apoptosis occur before anatomical change at posttreatment and could contribute to personalized medicine. K. Ogawa and M. Aoki introduced radiolabeled compounds for molecular imaging of apoptosis (cell death), their applications, and utility in medicine. Hypoxic regions in tumors are known to be resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) expressed in hypoxic regions regulates expression of genes related to tumor growth, angiogenesis, metastasis, and therapy resistance. Thus, imaging of HIF-1-active regions in tumors is of great interest. M. Ueda and H. Saji summarized the current status of HIF-1 imaging in preclinical and clinical studies. Kazuma Ogawa Masahiro Ono Mei Tian Masashi Ueda Takahiro Higuchi

Maladaptive use of the Internet results in Internet addiction (IA), which is associated with various negative consequences. Molecular and functional imaging techniques have been increasingly used for analysis of neurobiological changes and neurochemical correlates of IA. This review summarizes molecular and functional imaging findings on neurobiological mechanisms of IA, focusing on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear imaging modalities including positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). MRI studies demonstrate that structural changes in frontal cortex are associated with functional abnormalities in Internet addicted subjects. Nuclear imaging findings indicate that IA is associated with dysfunction of the brain dopaminergic systems. Abnormal dopamine regulation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) could underlie the enhanced motivational value and uncontrolled behavior over Internet overuse in addicted subjects. Further investigations are needed to determine specific changes in the Internet addictive brain, as well as their implications for behavior and cognition.

11C-choline and18F-FAMT are known to correlate with tumor cell proliferation and amino acid metabolism. We investigated the ability of11C-Choline and18F-FAMT PET in diagnosis of musculoskeletal tumors in thirty-six patients in comparison of18F-FDG PET.11C-Choline and18F-FDG PET were positive in all the malignant tumors (n=13), whereas18F-FAMT was positive in 11 tumors. The mean SUVs for malignant tumors were significantly higher than those for benign lesions in all three tracers imaging. A moderate correlation was found between11C-Choline and18F-FDG (r=0.540,P<.05), or18F-FAMT and FDG (r=0.596,P<.05). The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for malignancy were 91.7% and 71.4%, respectively, using11C-choline with a SUV cut-off of 2.69. The sensitivity and specificity of18F-FAMT for malignancy were 66.7% and 85.7%, respectively, using a SUV cut-off of 1.26. For18F-FDG, using a SUV cut-off of 2.77, the sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 71.4%, respectively. According to ROC analysis, the ROC curves for11C-Choline,18F-FAMT, and18F-FDG were 0.855, 0.734, and 0.847, respectively.11C-Choline PET is superior in the visualization of musculoskeletal tumors with high contrast imaging, whereas the combination of18F-FAMT and18F-FDG PET provides valuable information for the preoperative planning in patients with musculoskeletal tumors.