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Introduction: Post-stroke complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a devastating disease that causes severe physical and emotional consequences. Conventional therapies are limited due to the insufficient benefits and side effects, and fire needling therapy is considered an alternative for post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb.Methods and Analysis: This is a study protocol for a pilot randomised, two-arm, single-centre, clinical trial at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Capital Medical University. The trial started in March 2023 and is expected to end in December 2024. A total of 60 patients (aged 40– 75 years, male or female) with post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb will be randomly assigned to treatment group (fire needling therapy, 5 sessions per week for 2 weeks) or control group (manual acupuncture, 5 sessions per week for 2 weeks) in a 1:1 ratio using block randomisation and opaque envelopes. Fire needling therapy or manual acupuncture will be performed in ten acupoints. Participants will complete the trial by visiting the research centre at Week 14 for a follow-up assessment. The primary outcome is the response rate. Secondary outcomes include FMA, Barthel Scale/Index (BI), pain threshold (PPT), and muscle elasticity modulus (using shear wave elastography [SWE]). A chi-squared test will be used for response rate. A mixed-effects linear model and a mixed-effects model will be used for FMA, BI, PPT, and SWE, respectively.Discussion: This is the first standardised protocol to compare the effectiveness of fire needling therapy and manual acupuncture. We will use a rigorous methodology to minimise bias and set up supervising committees to ensure the quality of our study, thus providing trustworthy evidence for better understanding of fire needling therapy in treating post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to establish a rodent peri‐implantitis model induced by a mixed bacterial infection characterized by bone loss and semi‐quantitative graduation of peri‐implant inflammation in histological sections. Materials and Methods: Two titanium implants were implanted in Sprague‐Dawley rats, bilaterally in each maxilla. After 3 weeks healing, the rats were randomized into three groups according to different treatments over the next 3 months: Antibiotic‐Group with oral lavage of antibiotics; Bacteria‐Group with oral lavage of Streptococcus oralis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans; and Untreated Group with standard housing and no additional treatment. Maxillae were dissected to perform microscopic and histological analysis of bone height and peri‐implant tissues. Results: The bone level, measured at one implant site per animal, in the Bacteria‐Group (2.60 ± 0.39 mm) was significantly reduced compared to the Antibiotic‐Group (2.29 ± 0.32 mm) after 3 months. The differences of bone height in the Bacteria‐Group and the Untreated Group (2.46 ± 0.27 mm) did not reach statistical significance. The inflammatory response with respect to the number of inflammatory cells and fibrous tissue compartments of the peri‐implant tissues in the Bacteria‐Group was significantly increased compared with the Antibiotic‐Group (p <.05). S. oralis and A. actinomycetemcomitans DNAs were detected in the Bacteria‐Group. Conclusions: This rat model of peri‐implantitis used oral bacterial lavage for the induction of an inflammatory host response and bone loss. Additional bacterial treatment enhances the peri‐implant phenotype, so that significant differences to a reduced bacterial load similar to the human peri‐implantitis disease can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of curriculum ideological and political education reform, ideological and political education entering acupuncture professional courses has great advantages and development prospects. By introducing the cases of famous and veteran traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctors and their life stories into acupuncture teaching, the ideological and political elements related to caring for patients, loving the country, innovation and development, cultural confidence etc. were deeply explored. Through optimizing the course design in acupuncture teaching, the integration of acupuncture teaching and ideological and political education is better achieved. While interpreting the life stories and superb medical skills of famous TCM experts, students are encouraged to establish good medical ethics and values, build their cultural confidence and innovation consciousness, and achieve the teaching goal of educating students through the course.

To analyze the research hotspots, frontiers and trends of fire needle clinical randomized controlled trial (RCT) literature in the past 10 years by using bibliometrics and knowledge mapping methods. Six Chinese and English databases including CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed and Web of Science ( WOS ) were searched for RCT research literature on fire needle. CiteSpace V6.1.R6 and VOSviewer V1.6.18 software were used to analyze the cooperation network, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering, keyword timeline, keyword emergence, etc., and to draw a visual knowledge map. A total of 1 973 Chinese articles and 3 English articles were included. The top three institutions that publish articles were Guangzhou University of CM, Heilongjiang University of CM and Beijing Hospital of TCM Affiliated to Capital Medical University. The fire needle was often combined with acupuncture, cupping and bloodletting therapy in the treatment of acne, vitiligo, lumbar disc herniation, herpes zoster, stroke sequelae, facial paralysis, knee osteoarthritis and so on. The research frontiers included the combined application of fire needle and other therapies, clinical mechanism research and efficacy evaluation index research. In the future, we should expand the dominant diseases, optimize the research design, strengthen the cooperation between the teams, and carry out high-level clinical research.