To investigate the effectiveness and safety of Tai Chi for improving balance and reducing falls on people.

Upper limb dysfunction is one of common sequelae of stroke which limits daily activities and decreases quality of life of patients, as well as increasing caregiving burden on families. Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is considered to be a beneficial therapy for post-stroke patients with upper limb motor dysfunction, but there is a lack of a high quality evidence. We aim to investigate the effectiveness and safety of TBS for upper limb motor dysfunction in patients with stroke.

Acute lumbar sprain (ALS) frequently occurs in the young and middle-aged people, causing great harm to people's quality of life. The systematic review program was designed to describe a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) in treating patients with ALS.

The addition of anti-HER2 therapies to neoadjuvant treatment significantly enhances pathological complete response (PCR) rate in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. Selecting patients unlikely to benefit from neoadjuvant anti-HER2 therapies is increasingly important. In this study, we proposed to assess the role of the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) as a biomarker in predicting PCR to neoadjuvant anti-HER2 therapies by conducting meta-analysis.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease and ultimately leads to right heart failure. Endothelin receptor antagonists (ERAs) have been demonstrated to significantly improve prognosis in PAH. However, ERAs-induced side effects can result in poor patient tolerance. Thus, we aim to evaluate current safety evidence of ERAs in PAH.

The association between use of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) with cognitive impairment in atrial fibrillation (AF) remains unknown.

This systematic review and meta-analysis collected data for evaluating the effect of surgical extent on overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).

Capecitabine-based neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer. The objective of this study is to analyze overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and prognostic factors of patients with stage II to III rectal cancer treated with nCRT in our institution. Between March 2014 to June 2020, 121 locally advanced rectal cancer patients were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. All of the enrolled patients were treated with capecitabine-based nCRT (pelvic radiotherapy: 45-50.4 Gy, 1.8 Gy/d plus concomitant capecitabine-based chemotherapy), total mesorectal excision surgery (surgery was carried out 8-12 weeks after the end of CRT), and capecitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy. We examined the pathological complete response rate, 3-year OS, 3-year DFS and the other prognostic factors. Kaplan-Meier method and Log-rank test were used to estimate and compare survival rate. With a median follow-up of 36 months, 3-year DFS and 3-year OS was 74.4% and 83.2%, respectively. Among the 121 patients, 24 achieved pathological complete remission (19.8%). After multivariate analysis, ypTNM stage (TNM stage after neoadjuvant therapy) was significantly associated with DFS. Positive mesorectal fasciae (MRF) status on magnetic resonance imaging and ypTNM stage were significantly related to OS. CRT with capecitabine based regimen provides high rates of survival and sphincter preservation with acceptable toxicity. YpTNM stage was significantly associated with DFS; magnetic resonance imaging MRF status and ypTNM stage were significant factors for OS after multivariate analysis. Distant metastasis is the dominant mode of treatment failure, and it is crucial to optimize systemic treatment for newly diagnosed patients.

As one of the most serious cancers, gastric cancer (GC) represents the third leading cause of malignancy-related deaths. G9a is a histone lysine methyltransferase and has been reported to be involved in the progression of some human cancers. In the present study, we aimed to explore the expression patterns and clinical value of G9a in GC patients.The expression of G9a in 142 paired GC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues (no less than 5 cm from tumor edge) was examined with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). To estimate the association of G9a expression with clinical characteristics of GC patients, Chi-square test and t test were conducted. Kaplan-Meier survival and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to explore the prognostic value of G9a in GC.Upregulated expression of G9a was found in GC tissues compared with noncancerous tissues (P < .001). Elevated G9a expression was significantly correlated with patients' lymph node metastasis (P = .007) and TNM stage (P < .001). Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated that patients with high G9a expression had shorter survival time than those with low expression (log-rank test, P < .05), reaching a median OS of 24 months. According to the results of Cox regression, G9a could be considered as an independent prognostic biomarker in patients with GC (HR = 3.912, 95% CI = 2.213-6.915, P < .001). Additionally, the diagnosis cut-off value of G9a in GC patients was 1.515.Taken together, G9a expression was upregulated in GC tissues and could be an effective prognostic biomarker for GC.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been inconsistently associated with pancreatic cancer (PC) risk. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize relevant data on SNPs associated with PC.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is recognized as the most prevalent arrhythmia, and its subsequently serious complications of heart failure and thromboembolism always raise the social attention. To date, the molecular pathogenesis of AF has largely remained unclear. Publications of contemporary studies have evaluated individual miRNAs expression signatures for AF, and findings of different studies are inconsistent and not all miRNAs reported are actually important in the pathogenesis of AF.

This meta-analysis was designed to fully assess the curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer (BC).

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been inconsistently associated with gastric cancer (GC) risk. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize relevant data on SNPs associated with GC.

This study was aimed to detect a new mutation responsible for X-linked dilated cardiomyopathy with hyper-CKemia.We studied a proband who presented with cardiac symptoms with hyper-CKemia, but no clinical skeletal involvement in physical examination, laboratory tests, electromyography, echocardiography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cardiac muscles. Muscle biopsy for histopathology and immunohistochemistry for accessing sarcolemma changes. The next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were performed on the patient and Sanger sequencing was confirmed on the other 6 unaffected families.The clinic investigations illustrated a dilated cardiomyopathy. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry showed dystrophic changes and an obvious reduction of dystrophin-N and δ-sarcoglycan, respectively. One hemizygous splicing pathogenic mutation c.31 + 1G > C of exon 1 in the DMD gene (chrX33229398, NM_00 4006) was finally identified in the patient and his nephew, but it was carried in his mother and sister.A novel small mutation was identified at the first exon-intron boundary splicing site by next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been inconsistently associated with osteosarcoma (OS) risk. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize relevant data on SNPs associated with OS.

Glucocorticoid as the standard treatment of autoimmune hepatitis has been recommended with different doses. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of high and low doses for clinical practice.