Yu Xin , Lei Zhang , Qiancheng Zhao , Yurong She , Zhensu She , Shuna Song
{"title":"The gas discharge visualization (GDV) order parameter model based on the principle of mastering both permanence and change","authors":"Yu Xin , Lei Zhang , Qiancheng Zhao , Yurong She , Zhensu She , Shuna Song","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To investigate the human body’s complex system, and classify and characterize the human body’s health states with “a comprehensive integrated method from qualitative to quantitative”.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This paper introduces the concept of “order parameters” and proposes a method for establishing an order parameter model of gas discharge visualization (GDV) based on the principle of “mastering both permanence and change (MBPC)”. The method involved the following three steps. First, average luminous intensity (<span><math><mrow><mover><mi>I</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math></span>) and average area (<span><math><mrow><mover><mi>S</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></mrow></math></span>) of the GDV images were calculated to construct the phase space, and the score of the health questionnaire was calculated as the health deviation index (<em>H</em>). Second, the k-means++ clustering method was employed to identify subclasses with the same health characteristics based on the data samples, and to statistically determine the symptom-specific frequencies of the subclasses. Third, the distance (<em>d</em>)<italic/> between each sample and the “ideal health state”, which determined in the phase space of each subclass, was calculated as an order parameter describing the health imbalance, and a linear mapping was established between the <em>d</em> and the <em>H</em>. Further, the health implications of GDV signals were explored by analyzing subclass symptom profiles. We also compare the mean square error (MSE) with classification methods based on age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) indices to verify that the phase space possesses the ability to portray the health status of the human body.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>This study preliminarily tested the reliability of the order parameter model on data samples provided by 20 participants. Based on the discovered linear law, the current model can use <em>d</em> calculated by measuring the GDV signal to predict <em>H</em> (<em>R</em><sup>2</sup> > 0.77). Combined with the symptom profiles of the subclasses, we explain the classification basis of the phase space based on the pattern identification. Compared with common classification methods based on age, gender, BMI, etc., the MSE of phase space-based classification was reduced by an order of magnitude.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>In this study, the GDV order parameter model based on MBPC can identify subclasses and characterize individual health levels, and explore the TCM health meanings of the GDV signals by using subjective-objective methods, which holds significance for establishing mathematical models from TCM diagnosis principles to interpret human body signals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 231-240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Priyadharshini , A. Mooventhan , Venkatalakshmi Saravanan , N. Mangaiarkarasi
{"title":"Effects of needling at Sanyinjiao (SP6) acupuncture point on blood glucose levels and cardiovascular functions in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized placebo-controlled study","authors":"S. Priyadharshini , A. Mooventhan , Venkatalakshmi Saravanan , N. Mangaiarkarasi","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To determine the effect of needling at Sanyinjiao (SP6) on random blood glucose (RBG) levels and cardiovascular function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this randomized placebo-controlled study, T2DM patients (aged 35 – 65 years) were recruited from the Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, India, between January 5, 2022 and March 15, 2023. Participants were randomly assigned to either acupuncture group or sham acupuncture group. The acupuncture group received bilateral needling at Sanyinjiao (SP6) while sham acupuncture group received needling at a non-acupuncture point [1.5 cun lateral to Sanyinjiao (SP6)] for 30 min. Primary outcome was RBG, and secondary outcomes included systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse rate (PR), pulse pressure (PP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), rate pressure product (RPP), and double product (Do-P). All parameters were assessed immediately before and after intervention.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A total of 100 patients with T2DM were enrolled in the study, and blinded to acupuncture group (<em>n</em> = 50) and sham acupuncture group (<em>n</em> = 50). Intergroup analysis showed that significant reductions in RBG (<em>P <</em> 0.001), SBP (<em>P</em> = 0.035), DBP (<em>P</em> = 0.008), and MAP (<em>P</em> = 0.009) were found in acupuncture group compared with sham acupuncture group. Within-group analysis showed significant reductions in RBG (<em>P</em> < 0.001), SBP (<em>P</em> < 0.001), DBP (<em>P</em> = 0.008), PP (<em>P</em> = 0.023), MAP (<em>P</em> < 0.001), RPP (<em>P</em> < 0.001), and Do-P (<em>P</em> = 0.002) in acupuncture group, whereas sham acupuncture group showed a significant decrease in PR (<em>P</em> = 0.023) only in the post-test assessment compared with pre-test assessment.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>A period of 30 min of needling at the Sanyinjiao (SP6) acupuncture point reduces RBG and promotes cardiovascular function in patients with T2DM as compared with needling at non-acupuncture points. Sanyinjiao (SP6) acupuncture may offer an immediate, non-pharmacological intervention to strengthen glycemic control management and cardiovascular health in T2DM patients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 224-230"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lightweight and polarized self-attention mechanism for abnormal morphology classification algorithm during traditional Chinese medicine inspection","authors":"Zhang Qi , Hu Kongfa , Wang Tianshu , Yang Tao","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To propose a Light-Atten-Pose-based algorithm for classifying abnormal morphology in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) inspection to solve the problem of relying on manual labor or expensive equipment with personal subjectivity or high cost.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>First, this paper establishes a dataset of abnormal morphology for Chinese medicine diagnosis, with images from public resources and labeled with category labels by several Chinese medicine experts, including three categories: normal, shoulder abnormality, and leg abnormality. Second, the key points of human body are extracted by Light-Atten-Pose algorithm. Light-Atten-Pose algorithm uses lightweight EfficientNet network and polarized self-attention (PSA) mechanism on the basis of AlphaPose, which reduces the computation amount by using EfficientNet network, and the data is finely processed by using PSA mechanism in spatial and channel dimensions. Finally, according to the theory of TCM inspection, the abnormal morphology standard based on the joint angle difference is defined, and the classification of abnormal morphology of Chinese medical diagnosis is realized by calculating the angle between key points. Accuracy, frames per second (FPS), model size, parameter set (Params), and giga floating-point operations per second (GFLOPs) are chosen as the evaluation indexes for lightweighting.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Validation of the Light-Atten-Pose algorithm on the dataset showed a classification accuracy of 96.23%, which is close to the original AlphaPose model. However, the FPS of the improved model reaches 41.6 fps from 16.5 fps, the model size is reduced from 155.11 MB to 33.67 MB, the Params decreases from 40.5 M to 8.6 M, and the GFLOPs reduces from 11.93 to 2.10.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The Light-Atten-Pose algorithm achieves lightweight while maintaining high robustness, resulting in lower complexity and resource consumption and higher classification accuracy, and the experiments prove that the Light-Atten-Pose algorithm has a better overall performance and has practical application in the pose estimation task.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 256-263"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xie Mingxia , Cai Zengyun , Li Junyao , Tan Jiaren , Liu Pei , Yu Yanlan , Jiao Luojia
{"title":"Metabolic characteristics of Qi-Yin deficiency and heat stagnation in liver meridian patterns of dry eye based on tear metabolomics","authors":"Xie Mingxia , Cai Zengyun , Li Junyao , Tan Jiaren , Liu Pei , Yu Yanlan , Jiao Luojia","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To explore the metabolic differences between dry eye patients with Qi-Yin deficiency and heat stagnation in liver meridian patterns, and clarify their metabolic characteristics.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Patients with dry eye who were treated in the Ophthalmology Ward and Outpatient Department of the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine from October 1, 2020, to October 30, 2021 were enrolled as the research participants in the study. They were assigned to two groups based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome types: heat stagnation in liver meridian pattern group and Qi-Yin deficiency pattern group. Healthy volunteers who underwent health check-ups in the Health Management Department were included as healthy group following the random number table method. The tears of the patients and the healthy volunteer participants were tested by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The differential metabolites were screened out by multivariate statistical analysis, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment was performed on the differential metabolites. Finally, the association analysis of differential proteins and metabolites was conducted to verify and supplement the metabolites.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A total of 32 dry eye patients were enrolled, including 16 cases with heat stagnation in liver meridian pattern and 16 cases with Qi-Yin deficiency pattern. Fourteen healthy volunteers were included as healthy group. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics among the three groups (<em>P</em> > 0.05). A total of 412 biomarkers were determined in Qi-Yin deficiency pattern group, mainly including lipids, lipid-like molecules, organic acids and their derivatives, organic heterocyclic compounds, and nucleosides and their analogues. For heat stagnation in liver meridian pattern group, 112 metabolites were determined, mainly including organic acids and their derivatives, lipids, and lipid-like molecules. The KEGG enrichment results of pathways and the relative content analysis of differential markers demonstrate that purine metabolism and caffeine metabolism pathways are common metabolic characteristics of all dry eyes. Among them, deoxyinosine monophosphate (dIMP) and 2-(formamido)-N1-(5-phospha-D-ribosyl) acetamidine can serve as their biomarkers. The main characteristics of Qi-Yin deficiency syndrome pattern were the significant enhancement of metabolic pathways such as lysine degradation, ovarian steroidogenesis, cholesterol metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, and bile secretion (<em>P</em> < 0.05). Dry eye associated with the heat stagnation in liver meridian pattern is mainly characterized by inhibition of the valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosynthesis pathways (<em>P</em> < 0.05).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Metabolomics can be used as an effective basis for TCM syndrome classif","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 274-283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shan Hui , Qing Zheng , Hongli Li , Lemei Zhu , Beibei Wu , Lihui Liang , Jingjing Yang
{"title":"Modulation of synaptic damage by Bushen Tiansui Decoction via the PI3K signaling pathway in an Alzheimer’s disease model","authors":"Shan Hui , Qing Zheng , Hongli Li , Lemei Zhu , Beibei Wu , Lihui Liang , Jingjing Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To explore the therapeutic effect and mechanism of Bushen Tiansui Decoction (补肾填髓方, BSTSD) and its active component icariin on Alzheimer’s disease (AD).</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>(i) Animal experiments. This study conducted experiments using specific pathogen-free (SPF) grade male C57BL/6J wild-type (WT) mice and APP/PS1 double transgenic mice. The animals were divided into three groups: WT group (WT mice, <em>n</em> = 5, receiving distilled water daily), APP/PS1 group (APP/PS1 double transgenic mice, <em>n</em> = 5, receiving distilled water daily), and BSTSD group [APP/PS1 double transgenic mice, <em>n</em> = 5, treated with BSTSD suspension at a dosage of 27 g/(kg·d) for 90 d]. Cognitive function was assessed using the Morris water maze (MWM). Post-experiment, hippocampal tissues were collected for analysis of pyramidal cell and synaptic morphology through hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). (ii) Cell experiments. The HT-22 cells were divided into control group (untreated), A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> group (treated with 20 μmol/L A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> for 24 h), icariin group (pre-treated with 20 μmol/L icariin for 60 min, followed by 20 μmol/L A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> for an additional 24 h), and icariin + LY294002 group [treated with 20 μmol/L icariin and 20 μmol/L LY294002 (an inhibitor of the phosphoinostitide 3-kinases (PI3K) signaling pathway) for 60 min, then exposed to 20 μmol/L A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> for 24 h], and cell viability was measured. Western blot was used to detect the expression levels of synapse-associated proteins [synaptophysin (SYP) and postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95)] and PI3K signaling pathway associated proteins [phosphorylated (p)-PI3K/PI3K, p-protein kinase B (Akt)/Akt, and p-mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)/mTOR].</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>(i) Animal experiments. Compared with APP/PS1 group, BSTSD group showed that escape latency was significantly shortened (<em>P</em> < 0.01) and the frequency of crossing the original platform was significantly increased (<em>P</em> < 0.01). Morphological observation showed that pyramidal cells in the hippocampal CA1 region were arranged more regularly, nuclear staining was uniform, and vacuole-like changes were reduced after BSTSD treatment. TEM showed that the length of synaptic active zone in BSTSD treatment group was increased compared with APP/PS1 group (<em>P</em> < 0.01), and the width of synaptic gap was decreased (<em>P</em> < 0.01). (ii) Cell experiments. Icariin had no obvious toxicity to HT-22 cells when the concentration was not more than 20 μmol/L (<em>P</em> > 0.05), and alleviated the cell viability decline induced by A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> (<em>P</em> < 0.01). Western blot results showed that compared with A<em>β</em><sub>25-35</sub> group, the ratios of p-PI3K/PI3K, p-Akt/Akt and p-mTOR/mTOR in icariin group were significantly in","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 284-293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Construction and optimization of traditional Chinese medicine constitution prediction models based on deep learning","authors":"Zhang Xinge, Xu Qiang, Wen Chuanbiao, Luo Yue","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To cater to the demands for personalized health services from a deep learning perspective by investigating the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution data and constructing models to explore new prediction methods.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Data from students at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were collected and organized according to the 24 solar terms from January 21, 2020, to April 6, 2022. The data were used to identify nine TCM constitutions, including balanced constitution, Qi deficiency constitution, Yang deficiency constitution, Yin deficiency constitution, phlegm dampness constitution, damp heat constitution, stagnant blood constitution, Qi stagnation constitution, and specific-inherited predisposition constitution. Deep learning algorithms were employed to construct multi-layer perceptron (MLP), long short-term memory (LSTM), and deep belief network (DBN) models for the prediction of TCM constitutions based on the nine constitution types. To optimize these TCM constitution prediction models, this study introduced the attention mechanism (AM), grey wolf optimizer (GWO), and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The models’ performance was evaluated before and after optimization using the F1-score, accuracy, precision, and recall.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The research analyzed a total of 31 655 pieces of data. (i) Before optimization, the MLP model achieved more than 90% prediction accuracy for all constitution types except the balanced and Qi deficiency constitutions. The LSTM model's prediction accuracies exceeded 60%, indicating that their potential in TCM constitutional prediction may not have been fully realized due to the absence of pronounced temporal features in the data. Regarding the DBN model, the binary classification analysis showed that, apart from slightly underperforming in predicting the Qi deficiency constitution and damp heat constitution, with accuracies of 65% and 60%, respectively. The DBN model demonstrated considerable discriminative power for other constitution types, achieving prediction accuracy rates and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) values exceeding 70% and 0.78, respectively. This indicates that while the model possesses a certain level of constitutional differentiation ability, it encounters limitations in processing specific constitutional features, leaving room for further improvement in its performance. For multi-class classification problem, the DBN model’s prediction accuracy rate fell short of 50%. (ii) After optimization, the LSTM model, enhanced with the AM, typically achieved a prediction accuracy rate above 75%, with lower performance for the Qi deficiency constitution, stagnant blood constitution, and Qi stagnation constitution. The GWO-optimized DBN model for multi-class classification showed an increased prediction accuracy rate of 56%, while the PSO-optimized model ","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 241-255"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Li Xin , Li Wei , Ng Man-In, Parry Natalie Ann, Li Siqi, Li Rui, Guo Rui
{"title":"Analysis on pulse features of coronary heart disease patients with or without a history of ischemic stroke","authors":"Li Xin , Li Wei , Ng Man-In, Parry Natalie Ann, Li Siqi, Li Rui, Guo Rui","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To evaluate the capability of wrist pulse analysis in distinguishing three physiological and pathological conditions: healthy individuals, coronary heart disease (CHD) patients without a history of ischemic stroke, and CHD patients with a history of ischemic stroke.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Study participants were recruited from Shuguang East Hospital, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, and Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, affiliated with Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, from April 15 to September 15, 2021. They were categorized into three groups: healthy controls (Group 1), CHD patients without a history of ischemic stroke (Group 2), and CHD patients with a history of ischemic stroke (Group 3). The wrist pulse signals of the study participants were non-invasively collected using a pulse diagnosis instrument. The linear time-domain features and nonlinear time-series multiscale entropy (MSE) features of the pulse signals were extracted using time-domain analysis and the MSE methods, which were subsequently compared between groups. Based on these extracted features, a recognition model was developed using a random forest (RF) algorithm. The classification performance of the models was evaluated using metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score derived from confusion matrix as well as the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A total of 189 participants were enrolled, with 63 in Group 1, 61 in Group 2, and 65 in Group 3. Compared with Group 1, Group 2 showed significant increases in pulse features H2/H1, H3/H1, W1, W2, and W2/T, and decreased in MSE<sub>1</sub> – MSE<sub>7</sub> (<em>P</em> < 0.05), while Group 3 showed significant increases in pulse features T5/T4, T, H1/T1, W1, W2, AS, and Ad, and decreased in MSE<sub>1</sub> – MSE<sub>20</sub> (<em>P</em> < 0.05). Compared with Group 2, Group 3 demonstrated notable increases in H1/T1 and As (<em>P</em> < 0.05). The RF model achieved precision of 80.00%, 61.54%, and 61.54%, recall of 74.29%, 60.00%, and 68.97%, F1-scores of 70.04%, 60.76%, and 65.04%, and AUC values of 0.92, 0.74, and 0.81 for Groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The overall accuracy was 67.69%, with micro-average AUC of 0.83 and macro-average AUC of 0.82.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Differences in pulse features reflect variations in arterial compliance, peripheral resistance, cardiac afterload, and pulse signal complexity among healthy individuals, CHD patients without a history of ischemic stroke, and those with such a history. The developed pulse-based recognition model holds the potential in distinguishing between these three groups, offering a novel diagnostic reference for clinical practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 264-273"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Rumsfeld Matrix test for acupuncture clinical trials","authors":"Gong Changzhen","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examined the application of the Rumsfeld Matrix to acupuncture clinical trials, particularly those published in leading medical journals such as <em>The Journal of the American Medical Association</em> (JAMA), <em>British Medical Journal</em> (BMJ), <em>The Lancet</em>, and <em>The New England Journal of Medicine</em> (NEJM). The integration of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) has introduced a level of academic rigor to acupuncture research, challenging the classical deterministic model and revealing a complex landscape of known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns. While RCTs have validated acupuncture’s efficacy in certain conditions, they have also highlighted considerable challenges, including the limitations of control group designs and the potential influence of placebo effects. The recurring issue of no significant differences between real and sham acupuncture in many studies underscores the need for refined control strategies and a more nuanced understanding of acupuncture’s mechanisms. This investigation calls for continued rigorous research to fully explore acupuncture’s therapeutic potential and its integration into evidence-based medicine, ultimately contributing to improved patient care and broader acceptance within the medical community.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 209-223"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143262516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haiying Li , Xue Pan , Mincun Wang , Wenjiao Li , Peng He , Sheng Huang , Fuyuan He
{"title":"A novel method for integrating chromatographic fingerprint analytical units of Chinese materia medica: the matching frequency statistical moment method","authors":"Haiying Li , Xue Pan , Mincun Wang , Wenjiao Li , Peng He , Sheng Huang , Fuyuan He","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.12.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To facilitate the quality evaluation suitable for the unique characteristics of Chinese materia medica (CMM) by developing and implementing a novel approach known as the matching frequency statistical moment (MFSM) method.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This study established the MFSM method. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we applied this novel approach to analyze Danxi Granules (丹膝颗粒, DXG) and its constituent herbal materials. To begin with, the ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was applied to obtain the chromatographic fingerprints of DXG and its constituent herbal materials. Next, the MFSM was leveraged to compress and integrate them into a new fingerprint with fewer analytical units. Then, we characterized the properties and variability of both the original and integrated fingerprints by calculating total quantum statistical moment (TQSM) parameters, information entropy and information amount, along with their relative standard deviation (RSD). Finally, we compared the TQSM parameters, information entropy and information amount, and their RSD between the traditional and novel fingerprints to validate the new analytical method.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The chromatographic peaks of DXG and its 12 raw herbal materials were divided and integrated into peak families by the MFSM method. Before integration, the ranges of the peak number, three TQSM parameters, information entropy and information amount for each peak or peak family of UPLC fingerprints of DXG and its 12 raw herbal materials were 95.07 − 209.73, <styled-content style-type=\"number\">9390</styled-content> − <styled-content style-type=\"number\">183064</styled-content> μv·s, 5.928 − 21.33 min, 22.62 − 106.69 min<sup>2</sup>, 4.230 − 6.539, and <styled-content style-type=\"number\">50530</styled-content> − <styled-content style-type=\"number\">974186</styled-content> μv·s, respectively. After integration, the ranges of these parameters were 10.00 − 88.00, <styled-content style-type=\"number\">9390</styled-content> − <styled-content style-type=\"number\">183064</styled-content> μv·s, 5.951 − 22.02 min, 22.27 − 104.73 min<sup>2</sup>, 2.223 − 5.277, and <styled-content style-type=\"number\">38159</styled-content> − <styled-content style-type=\"number\">807200</styled-content> μv·s, respectively. Correspondingly, the RSD of all the aforementioned parameters before integration were 2.12% − 9.15%, 6.04% − 49.78%, 1.15% − 23.10%, 3.97% − 25.79%, 1.49% − 19.86%, and 6.64% − 51.20%, respectively. However, after integration, they changed to 0.00%, 6.04% − 49.87%, 1.73% − 23.02%, 3.84% − 26.85%, 1.17% − 16.54%, and 6.40% − 48.59%, respectively. The results demonstrated that in the newly integrated fingerprint, the analytical units of constituent herbal materials, information entropy and information amount were significantly reduced (<em>P</em> < 0.05), wh","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 3","pages":"Pages 294-308"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143203672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Weishuo Ren , Tuya Wulan , Xingxing Dai , Yingying Zhang , Mingyue Jia , Minfang Feng , Xinyuan Shi
{"title":"Study on the interaction between volatile oil components and skin lipids based on molecular docking techniques","authors":"Weishuo Ren , Tuya Wulan , Xingxing Dai , Yingying Zhang , Mingyue Jia , Minfang Feng , Xinyuan Shi","doi":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.09.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dcmed.2024.09.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To analyze the interactions between different structural types of volatile oil components (VOCs) and skin lipid molecules, and investigate the mechanism of volatile oil in Chinese materia medica (VOCMM) as penetration enhancers.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this study, 210 different structural types of VOCs were selected from the VOCMM penetration enhancer database, and the molecular docking experiments were conducted with three main lipid molecules of skin: ceramide 2 (CER2), cholesterol (CHL), and free fatty acid (FFA). Each VOC was docked individually with each lipid molecule. Cluster analysis was used to explore the relationship between the binding energy of VOCs and their molecular structures. Nine specific pathogen-free (SPF) Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into Control, Nootkatone, and 3-Butylidenephthalide groups for <em>in vitro</em> percutaneous experiments, with three rats in each group. The donor pool solutions were 3% gastrodin, 3% gastrodin + 3% nootkatone, and 3% gastrodin + 3% 3-butylidenephthalide, respectively. The penetration enhancing effects of VOCs with higher binding energy were evaluated by comparing the 12-hour cumulative percutaneous absorption of gastrodin (<em>Q</em><sub>12</sub>, μg/cm<sup>2</sup>).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>(i) Most of the VOCs were non-hydrogen bonded to the hydrophobic parts of CHL and FFA, and hydrogen bonded to the head group of CER2. Among them, sesquiterpene oxides showed the most pronounced binding affinity to CER2. The VOCs with 2 − 4 rings (including carbon rings, benzene rings, and heterocycles) demonstrated stronger binding affinity for three skin lipid molecules compared with the VOCs without intramolecular rings (<em>P</em> < 0.01). (ii) According to the cluster analysis, most of the VOCs that bond well to CER2 had 2 − 3 intramolecular rings. The non-oxygenated VOCs were bonded to CER2 in a hydrophobic manner. The oxygenated VOCs were mostly bonded to CER2 by hydrogen bonding. (iii) The results of Franz diffusion cell experiment showed that the <em>Q</em><sub>12</sub> of Control group was 260.60 ± 25.09 μg/cm<sup>2</sup>, and the transdermal absorption of gastrodin was significantly increased in Nootkatone group (<em>Q</em><sub>12</sub> = <styled-content style-type=\"number\">5503.00</styled-content> ± <styled-content style-type=\"number\">1080.00</styled-content> μg/cm<sup>2</sup>, <em>P</em> < 0.01). The transdermal absorption of gastrodin was also increased in 3-Butylidenephthalide group (<em>Q</em><sub>12</sub> = 495.40 ± 56.98 μg/cm<sup>2</sup>, <em>P</em> > 0.05). (iv) The type of oxygen-containing functional groups in VOCs was also an influencing factor of binding affinity to CER2.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The interactions between different types of VOCs with different structures in the VOCMM and three skin lipid molecules in the stratum corneum were investigated at the mol","PeriodicalId":33578,"journal":{"name":"Digital Chinese Medicine","volume":"7 2","pages":"Pages 148-159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}