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Background: The objective of the current meta.analysis was to assess the arterial spin labeling. (ASL) perfusion imaging measurement of cerebral blood flow. (CBF) in patients with brain tumors, and assessing preoperative tumor grade in brain. Materials and Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China BioMedicine (CBM), CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were chosen to evaluate the associations between ASL and brain cancer. Two reviewers separately evaluated the quality of the included trials. Standardized mean difference (SMD) at 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was also calculated. Results: Finally, 475 patients were enrolled into this meta-analysis from 12 eligible studies and were selected for statistical analysis. Results showed that relative tumor blood flow (rTBF) and relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in high-grade brain cancer patients were faster than those in low-grade brain cancer patients. Subgroup analysis stratified by country implied that ASL may be the main prediction of increased rTBF in high-grade brain cancer patients among USA, Korea and China; and rCBF was faster in high-grade brain cancer using ASL in USA and China. Further reference by tissue-stratified analysis revealed a positive association of rTBF with high-grade brain cancer by utilization of ASL in all the experimental subgroups, while rCBF was only correlated in white subgroups. Conclusion: These results showed that rTBF and rCBF were faster in high-grade brain cancer patients, suggesting that ASL may provide suitable measurement for the differential diagnosis of tumor grade in brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of our study was to perform an updated meta-analysis of placebo-controlled RCTs of Huperzine A (HupA) on patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), in order to provide the basis and reference for clinical rational drug use. The primary outcome measures assessed were minimental state examination (MMSE) and activities of daily living scale (ADL). Eight AD trials with 733 participants and two VD trials with 92 participants that met our inclusion criteria were identified. The results showed that Hup A could significantly improve the MMSE and ADL score of AD and VD patients, and longer durations would result in better efficacy for the patients with AD. It seemed that there was significant improvement of cognitive function measured by memory quotient (MQ) in patients with AD. Most adverse effects in AD were generally of mild to moderate severity and transient. Compared to the patients with AD, Hup A may offer fewer side effects for participants with VD in this study. Therefore, Hup A is a well-tolerated drug that could significantly improve cognitive performance in patients with AD or VD, but we need to use it with caution in the clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]