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Pharmacopuncture is an acupuncture-related technique that has been used to amplify the therapeutic effects of different medications.

Acupuncture (AP) has been empirically used to relieve post-canine distemper virus (CDV) infection neurological signs in veterinary clinics.

Depression is a common illness worldwide. Acupuncture is used as an alternative to non-pharmacological therapy. This study aimed to identify the development and global trends in the study of acupuncture therapy for depression over the past two decades using a bibliometric analysis. Articles published between 2001 and 2020 on acupuncture for depression were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Extracted information included authors, organizations, countries, keywords, and journals. The VOSviewer program was used to visualize the impacts and network hubs of the keywords, authors, and affiliations. Analyses of 871 original and review articles revealed that the number of publications has continually increased over the past 20 years. China has published the maximum number of articles, followed by the United States and South Korea. As for research areas, integrative complementary medicine was most well represented in terms of the number of articles. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords indicated that each five sub-group cluster (including "pain related to depressive symptoms," "CAM therapies of depression," "comorbid disease or symptoms of depression," "clinical trials of depression," and "mechanism of acupuncture on depression") has its own impact keyword. The most recent keywords were "protocol" and "systematic review," whereas early keywords were "acupuncture analgesia" and "St john's wort." Co-authorship analysis of authors and organizations revealed 4 influential authors and 2 organizations in the field of acupuncture for depression. The present study provided influential keywords that show comorbid symptoms, treatments, and mechanism. Additionally, it revealed the influential persons or groups related to acupuncture therapy for depression.

Among people receiving maintenance dialysis, little is known about racial disparities in the occurrence of prognostic discussions, beliefs about future health, and completion of advance care planning (ACP) documents. We examined whether Black patients receiving maintenance dialysis differ from White patients in prognostic discussions, beliefs about future health, and completion of ACP-related documents.

Patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) exhibit remodelling of the lumbar soft tissues such as muscle fatty infiltrations (MFI) and fibrosis of the lumbar multifidus (LuM) muscles, thickness changes of the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) and perimuscular connective tissues (PMCT) surrounding the abdominal lateral wall muscles. Rehabilitative ultrasound imaging (RUSI) parameters such as thickness and echogenicity are sensitive to this remodelling. This experimental laboratory study aimed to explore whether these RUSI parameters (LuM echogenicity and fascia thicknesses), hereafter called dependent variables (DV) were linked to independent variables (IV) such as (1) other RUSI parameters (trunk muscle thickness and activation) and (2) physical and psychological measures. RUSI measures, as well as a clinical examination comprising physical tests and psychological questionnaires, were collected from 70 participants with LBP. The following RUSI dependent variables (RUSI-DV), measures of passive tissues were performed bilaterally: (1) LuM echogenicity (MFI/fibrosis) at three vertebral levels (L3/L4, L4/L5 and L5/S1); (2) TLF posterior layer thickness, and (3) PMCT thickness of the fasciae between subcutaneous tissue thickness (STT) and external oblique (PMCT ), between external and internal oblique (PMCT ), between IO and transversus abdominis (PMCT ) and between TrA and intra-abdominal content (PMCT ). RUSI measures of trunk muscle's function (thickness and activation), also called measures of active muscle tissues, were considered as independent variables (RUSI-IV), along with physical tests related to lumbar stability (n = 6), motor control deficits (n = 7), trunk muscle endurance (n = 4), physical performance (n = 4), lumbar posture (n = 2), and range of motion (ROM) tests (n = 6). Psychosocial measures included pain catastrophizing, fear-avoidance beliefs, psychological distress, illness perceptions and concepts related to adherence to a home-based exercise programme (physical activity level, self-efficacy, social support, outcome expectations). Six multivariate regression models (forward stepwise selection) were generated, using RUSI-DV measures as dependent variables and RUSI-IV/physical/psychosocial measures as independent variables (predictors). The six multivariate models included three to five predictors, explaining 63% of total LuM echogenicity variance, between 41% and 46% of trunk superficial fasciae variance (TLF, PMCT ) and between 28% and 37% of deeper abdominal wall fasciae variance (PMCT , PMCT and PMCT ). These variables were from RUSI-IV (LuM thickness at rest, activation of IO and TrA), body composition (percent fat) and clinical physical examination (lumbar and pelvis flexion ROM, aberrant movements, passive and active straight-leg raise, loaded-reach test) from the biological domain, as well as from the lifestyle (physical activity level during sports), psychological (psychological distress-cognitive subscale, fear-avoidance beliefs during physical activities, self-efficacy to exercise) and social (family support to exercise) domains. Biological, psychological, social and lifestyle factors each accounted for substantial variance in RUSI-passive parameters. These findings are in keeping with a conceptual link between tissue remodelling and factors such as local and systemic inflammation. Possible explanations are discussed, in keeping with the hypothesis-generating nature of this study (exploratory). However, to impact clinical practice, further research is needed to determine if the most plausible predictors of trunk fasciae thickness and LuM fatty infiltrations have an effect on these parameters.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a commonly used form of renal replacement therapy for patients that have reached end-stage renal disease. Acute bacterial peritonitis (ABP) in chronic PD patients results in pain, increased costs, injury to the peritoneal membrane, and PD modality failure. Optimal antibiotic treatment of acute bacterial peritonitis (ABP) in chronic PD patients should be intraperitoneal, outpatient-based, appropriate, prompt, and uninterrupted. We investigated the frequency of and predisposition to suboptimal antibiotic courses for ABP in our chronic PD patients.

To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) for acute respiratory failure (ARF) in pediatric patients.

To investigate safety, feasibility, and effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection into the olfactory clefts of COVID-19 patients with persistent olfactory dysfunction (OD).

Pilocytic astrocytoma is mostly a pediatric tumor with the majority of patients under age 20. Although tumors can occur throughout neuraxis, most tumors are in the cerebellum and optic chiasm. Pilocytic astrocytoma in unusual locations is often associated with different genetic alterations than the classic KIAA1549::BRAF fusion. We report a rare adult pilocytic astrocytoma of the septum pellucidum that presented with progressive headache. A detailed genomic evaluation found a fusion between BRAF and a novel partner RIN2, a gene overexpressed in both low-grade glioma and glioblastoma. The RIN2::BRAF transcript encodes a chimeric protein containing a dimerization domain SH2 and an intact kinase domain, consistent with a prototypic oncogenic kinase rearrangement. In addition, we discuss the potential oncogenic mechanisms of BRAF signaling and its implication in targeted therapy with kinase inhibitors.