Effects of Modified Wenjing Decoction Combined with Online Publicity and Education on the Treatment of Primary Dysmenorrhea of Cold Coagulation and Blood Stasis

Objective. To explore the effects of modified Wenjing decoction combined with online publicity and education on the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea of cold coagulation and blood stasis. Methods. The materials of 111 patients with primary dysmenorrhea of cold coagulation and blood stasis in the outpatient department (January 2019–June 2021) were collected to conduct the retrospective study. The 111 patients were randomized into treatment group (n = 59) and control group (n = 52). The control group received online publicity and education and conventional treatment, and the treatment group received online publicity and education and modified Wenjing decoction. The patients in the two groups were continuously treated for three menstrual cycles. The treatment effects, the dosage of analgesics, the scores of associated symptoms before and after treatment, and other indexes were compared between the two groups. Results. The differences in the efficacy on abdominal pain were statistically significant between the two groups P < 0.05 . Compared with the control group, the treatment group had lower scores of associated symptoms after treatment p < 0.5 . After the treatment of three menstrual cycles, 54 patients in the treatment group stopped taking ibuprofen, and the average ibuprofen dosage of the other 5 patients was (0.24 ± 0.16)g. The 52 patients in the control group still needed to take ibuprofen, and the mean dosage was (0.51 ± 0.05)g. The differences in the ibuprofen dosage between the two groups had remarkable difference P < 0.001 . Conclusion. Modified Wenjing decoction combined with online publicity and education can obviously improve the clinical symptoms of the patients with primary dysmenorrhea of cold coagulation and blood stasis and reduce the dosage of analgesics. It is worth promoting and applying in practice.

Combination of Systems Pharmacology and Experimental Evaluation to Explore the Mechanism of Synergistic Action of Frankincense-Myrrh in the Treatment of Cerebrovascular Diseases

Frankincense-Myrrh is a classic drug pair that promotes blood circulation, and eliminates blood stasis. The combination of the two drugs has a definite clinical effect on the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases (CBVDs), but its mechanism of action and compatibility have not been elucidated. In this study, the bioactive components, core targets, and possible synergistic mechanisms of Frankincense-Myrrh in the treatment of CBVDs are explored through systems pharmacology combined with in vivo and in vitro experiments. Comparing target genes of components in Frankincense and Myrrh with CBVD-related genes, common genes were identified; 15 core target genes of Frankincense-Myrrh for the treatment of CBVDs were then identified using protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis. It was also predicted through Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis that the molecular mechanism of Frankincense-Myrrh action on CBVDs was mainly related to the regulation of neurotrophic factors and inflammatory responses. Frankincense-Myrrh significantly improved neurological function, decreased infarct volume, alleviated histopathological damage, inhibited microglial expression, and promoted the expression of neurons in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-induced rats. The results of this study not only provide important theoretical support and experimental basis for the synergistic effect of Frankincense-Myrrh, but also provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of cerebral ischemic injuries.

Saponin constituents of Achyranthes root

Achyranthes root is a crude drug used as diuretic, tonic and remedy for blood stasis. Characteristic oleanolic acid saponins with a dicarboxylic acid moiety have been isolated as one of the representative constituents of this crude drug. This review focuses on the triterpene saponin constituents, especially those with a characteristic dicarboxylic acid moiety, of A. bidentata and A. fauriei. Several groups isolated the saponins and different names were given to one compound in some cases. The names of the compounds are sorted out and the stereochemistry of the dicarboxylic acid moieties are summarized. HPLC analysis of the composition of the saponin constituents and the effect of processing and extraction conditions on the composition are reviewed. Biological activities of the saponin constituents are also summarized.

Effect of Qingre Jiedu Huoxue Huayu Recipe on blood stasis and toxin syndrome in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome, serum Lp-PLA2, TNF- α, and PIGF expression level

The pathological basis of non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) is severe coronary stenosis, unstable plaque erosion, and rupture, resulting in coronary blood flow reduction and myocardial ischemia, leading to acute thrombosis cardiovascular disease events. This subject intends to study the treatment of NSTE-ACS patients with blood stasis and toxin syndrome by Qingre Jiedu Huoxue Huayu Decoction, observe its clinical efficacy, and explore the effects of serum lipoprotein phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF- α), the effect of placental growth factor (PIGF) expression. In this study, 100 patients with blood stasis and toxin syndrome of NSTE-ACS treated in the cardiovascular department of Enshi National Hospital from August 2020 to August 2021 were selected as the research object. They were randomly divided into traditional Chinese medicine comprehensive treatment groups and conventional western medicine control groups, with 50 cases. The conventional western medicine control group was treated with hydroclopidogrel tablets orally, and the comprehensive treatment group of traditional Chinese medicine combined with Qingre Jiedu Huoxue Huayu formula orally. The patients in both groups were treated for four weeks. The results showed that after treatment, the practical clinical rate of the comprehensive treatment group was significantly higher than that of the conventional western medicine control group. After treatment, the TCM syndrome score, angina pectoris attack duration, and angina pectoris attack frequency, myocardial zymogram index level, serum Lp-PLA2 and TNF of the two groups were measured- α. The levels of PIGF were significantly lower than those before treatment. The decline of the above indexes in the comprehensive treatment group of traditional Chinese medicine was significantly better than that in the control group of conventional Western Medicine (P<0.05). The incidence of MACE events in the TCM Comprehensive treatment group was significantly lower than that in the conventional western medicine control group (P <0.05).

A Perspective on Tongue Diagnosis in Patients with Breast Cancer

Introduction. Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women and patients with BC often undergo complex treatment. In Taiwan, nearly 80% of patients with BC seek traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) during adjuvant chemotherapy to relieve discomfort and side effects. This study investigated tongue features and pattern differentiation through noninvasive TCM tongue diagnosis in patients with BC. Materials and Methods. This cross-sectional, case-controlled, retrospective observational study collected patient data through a chart review. The tongue features were extracted using the automatic tongue diagnosis system (ATDS). Nine tongue features, including tongue shape, tongue color, fur thickness, fur color, saliva, tongue fissures, ecchymoses, teeth marks, and red dots, were analyzed. Results and Discussion. Objective image analysis techniques were used to identify significant differences in the many tongue features between BC patients and non-BC individuals. A significantly larger proportion of patients with BC had a small tongue ( p < 0.001 ), pale tongue ( p < 0.001 ), thick fur ( p < 0.001 ), yellow fur ( p < 0.001 ), wet saliva ( p < 0.001 ), thick tongue fur ( p < 0.001 ), fissures ( p = 0.040 ), and ecchymoses in the heart-lung area ( p = 0.013 ). According to logistic regression, small tongue shape, pale tongue color, yellow fur color, wet saliva, and the amounts of fissures were associated with a significantly increased odds ratio for BC. Conclusions. This study showed significant differences in tongue features, such as small tongue shape, pale tongue color, thick fur, yellow fur color, wet saliva, fissure, and ecchymoses in the heart-lung area in patients with BC. These tongue features would imply yin deficiency, deficiencies of blood, stagnation of heat, and phlegm/blood stasis in TCM theory. There is a need to investigate effective and safe treatment to enhance the role of TCM in integrated medical care for patients with BC.

A Review on the Mechanism and Application of Keishibukuryogan

The concept of “blood stasis” – called yū xiě in Chinese, Oketsu in Japanese – is one of the unique pathophysiology of traditional medicine that originated in China and inherited in Korea and Japan. This concept is related to the multiple aspects of hemodynamic disorders brought on by quantitative and qualitative changes. It theorizes that the quantitative changes of “blood stasis” are related to peripheral circulatory insufficiency. When chronic qualitative changes of “blood stasis” produce stagnant blood that turns into a pathological product, it could cause inflammation and lead to organic changes. Trauma induced hematomas, that are considered to be a quantitative change of blood, are also a form of blood stasis. The basic medicine research on Keishibukuryogan (KBG)–a Japanese name in Traditional Japanese Medicine (Kampo) for one of the most common anti- “blood stasis” prescriptions, also known as gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan (GFW) in Chinese in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)–indicated that the initiation of quantitative changes was closely related to loss of redox balances on endothelial function induced by oxidative stress. The following qualitative changes were related to coagulopathy, hyper viscosity; anti-platelet aggregation, lipid metabolism; a regulation of systemic leptin level and/or lipid metabolism, inflammatory factor; cyclooxygenase-1,2 (COX-1, 2), interleukin-6, 8 tumor necrosis factor-α, macrophage infiltration, hyperplasia, tissue fibrosis and sclerosis caused by transforming growth factor-β1 and fibronectin, the dysfunction of regulated cell deaths, such as, apoptosis, autophagy, ferroptosis and ovarian hormone imbalance. Clinically, KBG was often used for diseases related to Obstetrics and Gynecology, Endocrine Metabolism, Rheumatology and Dermatology. In this review, we give an overview of the mechanism and its current clinical application of KBG through a summary of the basic and clinical research and discuss future perspective.