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Clinical curative effect is the core value and fundamental pursuit of medicine. The data-driven clinical quantitative evaluation model is an important research issue in clinical efficacy evaluation. The existing clinical efficacy evaluation methods have made a lot of contributions to the structured information of static attributes, but less attention is paid to the heterogeneous information with dynamic and random characteristics. This paper discusses a class of clinical efficacy evaluation decision-making problems that contain both time-series and dynamic characteristics and uses the three-way decision principle to describe these characteristics. The group decision-making theory is introduced to aggregate the evaluation information of time series dynamic features generated in the decision-making process. A time series dynamic three-way group decision model for clinical efficacy evaluation is constructed, the optimal decision rules with minimum expected loss objective are calculated and proofed in the proposed model, and then the optimal treatment alternative is obtained. Finally, taking the decision-making problem of clinical efficacy evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment of atopic dermatitis as the research object, based on the actual clinical data of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM, the decision-making process and steps of the theoretical model constructed in this paper are verified and applied. The data-driven quantitative clinical evaluation model has achieved better application effects than the actual clinical scenarios. The research results in this paper provide new ideas and theoretical methods for real-world clinical efficacy evaluation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review evaluated the Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for treating atopic dermatitis (AD). PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane library, the Wanfang database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception to December 2021. Overall recovery rate, disease/symptom severity scoring, quality of life (QoL), recurrence rate, and incidence of adverse events (AEs) were evaluated. STATA SE 14.0 software was used for statistical analysis. 17 RCTs involving 1624 patients were eligible. CHM was associated with a higher overall recovery rate (risk ratio [RR] = 1.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05, 1.26, p =.003) and decreased recurrence rate (odds ratio [OR] = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.55, p =.002), both confirmed by sensitivity analyses. CHM could decrease scoring atopic dermatitis index (MD = −0.61, 95% CI: −1.12, −0.11, p =.017), however, sensitivity analysis revealed non-robustness. No significant differences were found between the CHM and the control group in Eczema Area and Severity Index, QoL, and the incidence of AEs. CHM was effective for treating AD as it could improve the overall recovery rate and decrease the recurrence rate. More studies are required to validate the potential of CHM on disease/symptoms severity and QoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parallel with the prevalence metabolic syndrome, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common chronic liver disease in most countries. It features a constellation of simple steatosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma. There are no approved drugs for effective management of NAFLD and NASH. Jianpi Huoxue formula (JPHX) mainly consists of Atractylodes macrocephal (Baizhu), Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), Rasux Paeonia Alba (Baishao), Rhizoma Alismatis (Zexie), and Fructus Schisandrae Chinensis (Wuweizi), which may have beneficial effects on NAFLD. The aim of the study was to identify the effect of JPHX on NAFLD. A NAFLD model was induced by methionine-choline-deficient food (MCD) in Wistar rats and orally administered with simultaneous JPHX, once a day for 8 weeks. Hepatocellular injury, lipid profile, inflammation, fibrosis, and apoptosis were evaluated. The results showed that JPHX significantly decreased the abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels compared with the MCD model (P<0.05). Furthermore, JPHX protected MCD diet-fed rats from accumulation of hepatic triglycerides (TG) and total cholesterol (TC). Histological examination demonstrated that JPHX noticeably normalized the NAFLD activity score (NAS). Moreover, JPHX ameliorated liver inflammation by decreasing TNF-α levels and reduced collagen and matrix metalloproteinases in MCD diet-fed rats. In addition, JPHX prevented rats from MCD-induced cellular apoptosis, as suggested by TUNEL staining, and suppressed the activation of caspase 3 and 7 proteins. JPHX also inhibited the phosphorylation of JNK. In conclusion, JPHX exhibited a hepatoprotective effect against NAFLD in an MCD experimental model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Atopic eczema or atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Current conventional medical treatment for moderate and severe atopic eczema is not satisfactory. There is promising evidence derived from randomised clinical trials to support the clinical use of Chinese herbal medicine in the management of atopic eczema. However, the available evidence is compromised by the high risk of bias associated with most of the included trials. Therefore, well-designed and adequately powered randomised clinical trials are needed. The primary aim of this trial is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral ingestion of an oral Chinese herbal formula (Pei Tu Qing Xin granules; PTQX) in children aged between 6 and 16 years with moderate to severe atopic eczema.Methods/design: We have designed a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-arm, parallel clinical trial with 12 weeks of treatment and a 4-week follow-up period. A pilot study with 30 participants will be conducted at the RMIT University in Australia to determine the feasibility of the full-scale randomised clinical trial (N = 124). Eczema Area and Severity Index score will be the primary outcome. Secondary outcome measures include change in symptoms using the Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure, the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index and the use of concomitant medicines. Safety parameters include report of adverse events and pathology tests during the trial period.Discussion: Key elements for conducting a high-quality randomised clinical trial have been addressed in this protocol. Findings from the proposed trial will provide critical evidence regarding Chinese herbal medicine treatment for atopic eczema.Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry Identifier: ACTRN12614001172695. Date of Registration: 7 November 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The current review summarizes TCMs exerts pharmacological effects on atopic dermatitis. • TCMs mainly exhibit the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects on atopic dermatitis. • This review covers animal model construction, pharmacodynamic mechanisms regulated by TCMs for atopic dermatitis. Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common relapsing inflammatory skin disease characterized by severe pruritus that seriously affects the quality of patients' life. There is an increasingly large amount of research demonstrating that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) including herbal formulae and bioactive ingredients exerts pharmacological effects on atopic dermatitis. It has been a long history of TCM being used to treat atopic dermatitis, especially in preventing disease recurrence, maintaining long-term remission, and reducing disease burden. Nowadays, both of TCM monomer preparations and traditional formulae are still widely used. This review focuses on TCM as well as its bioactive ingredients for the treatment of AD, from the perspectives of animal model construction, pharmacodynamic mechanisms and clinical studies of formulae. To be more specific, the regulation and molecular mechanisms of the herbal formulae and bioactive ingredients of TCM are investigated, and the latest clinical research on TCM formulae is discussed. Furthermore, it provides a summary of the strengths and utilities of TCM, and will be useful for doctors who use Chinese medicine for treatment or researchers who select candidates for clinical treatments or further high-quality clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]