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Background: The working environment of submarine crews is also very special. They are in a closed, high-temperature, high-noise, high-vibration and narrow working and living space for a long time, and they suffer from physical discomfort caused by seasickness, which will affect the mental health of officers and soldiers. American psychologists have achieved positive results in psychological resilience training for officers and soldiers from the perspective of positive psychology. At present, there are few reports on the correlation between psychological resilience in the field of domestic research on submarine crew psychology, and it is necessary to conduct further research., Aim: To explore the impact of active psychological regulation intervention on officers and soldiers operating in confined spaces at sea., Methods: A total of 121 soldiers working in a confined space of a large ship were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The 50 soldiers in the experimental group were given a training course intervention, while the 71 soldiers in the control group did not receive any intervention measures. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Psychological Resilience Scale, military Psychological Stress Self-Assessment Questionnaire, and General Self-Efficacy Scale scores were compared before and 6 months after the intervention., Results: Under the positive psychological control intervention, except for sleep efficiency ( P = 0.05), the difference between the remaining dimensions of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores and the total scores of the experimental group compared with the control group was statistically significant ( P < 0.05); the assessment of the psychological condition showed that, in addition to the Psychological Stress Self-assessment Questionnaire for Military Personnel scores ( P = 0.05), the scores of the Mental Toughness Scale (Dispositional Resilience Scale Resilience II) in the experimental group, General Self-Efficacy Scale scores were statistically significant ( P < 0.05) compared to pre-intervention., Conclusion: Positive psychological intervention and control can improve the sleep state and psychological state of officers and soldiers working in confined space at sea., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Tinnitus affects 10%-30% of the population. Recent evidence suggests that tinnitus is associated with spleen deficiency. However, compared with kidney deficiency-related tinnitus, less research has been conducted on the impact of spleen deficiency-related tinnitus., Aim: To investigate the clinical efficacy of using Guipi Wan and dietary and lifestyle modification based on traditional Chinese medicine for treatment of patients with spleen and stomach deficiency-related tinnitus., Methods: We enrolled 110 patients with spleen and stomach deficiency-related tinnitus who were distributed into treatment (58 cases) and control (52 cases) groups. Tinnitus severity, sleep quality and emotional state were assessed by questionnaires [Tinnitus Evaluation Questionnaire (TEQ); Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21)] that were used for analysis in the two groups during the initial and intervention and after. In the treatment group, patients were treated with oral administration of Guipi Wan and consulted for healthy dietary and lifestyle modification. In the control group, patients were only assessed and not treated., Results: At the end of the 6-months, TEQ scores decreased significantly in the treatment group ( P = 0.021) but not in the Control group. Significant effects in the treatment group were noted for PSQI total score ( P = 0.043) and several PSQI component scores in the treatment group ( P < 0.05). After treatment, the DASS-21 scores were significantly reduced in the treatment group ( P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Guipi Wan combined with dietary and lifestyle modification based on regulating the spleen and stomach can be considered core to the treatment of tinnitus related to spleen and stomach deficiency., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the basic clinical features of non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) in age, sex, incentives, and the effect of treatment with combined intranasal steroids and antihistamines., Methods: One hundred consecutive NAR patients were included in this study and the age, gender, predisposing factors and clinical symptoms were analyzed. Combined intranasal steroids and antihistamines used for 8 weeks, the symptoms were recorded before and after treatment with visual analogue scale(VAS) score as the assessment of treatment effects. SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the data., Results: Ninety-three NAR patients were adults, and the sex ratio was 1:1.2 (male:female), and the peak age incidence was between 30 - 39 years old. The main nasal symptoms were sneezing (96 cases), rhinorrhea (88 cases), nasal blockage (72 cases) and nasal itching (69 cases). The symptoms of eye and respiratory tract were always accompanied as eye itching (49 cases), tears (32 cases), congestion (22 cases), swelling (13 cases), cough (21 cases), suffocation (19 cases), chest compression (13 cases), wheezing (10 cases); Seventy-nine (79.0%) patients could indicate at least one kind of incentives, the temperature change (54 cases), dust (28 cases), irritating odor (21 cases) was the main incentive of NAR. Forty-seven patients completed the combined treatment of intranasal steroids and antihistamines, 38 (80.9%) patients were satisfied with the result with all symptoms relieved except wheezing (P < 0.05), but 36 patients had the NAR returned when they were exposed with the predisposing factors in the coming year; the remaining 9 (19.1%) patients failed the treatment., Conclusions: The clinical features of NAR were as follows: adult constituted the main patient population, women were slightly more than man but with no difference between genders; sneezing and nasal discharge were the main clinical symptoms, always more than 1 incentives. The combination of intranasal steroids and antihistamines could control the most of clinical symptoms.

Objective: To investigate the clinical symptom, precipitating factor, associated symptom, family history and life quality of pediatric patients with allergic rhinitis, and to analyze the characteristic of clinical symptoms., Methods: A questionnaire survey on pediatric AR patients since June 2008 to June 2010, one hundred and forty-eight pediatric AR patients were divided into 2 groups, group A (n = 43) included children aged from 3.2 to 6.0, group B (n = 105) included children aged from 6.1 to 14.8. The severity degree of clinical symptom was assessed by visual analogue scale., Results: Preschool age children had more severe rhinocleisis, more severe cough and less rhinorrhea than school age children (χ(2) value were 29.194, 12.277 and 16.904, respectively, P < 0.05). According to the classification criteria of ARIA 2008, preschool children had more mild intermittent AR and less moderate-severe persistent AR than school age children (χ(2) value were 20.370 and 24.546, P < 0.05). The precipitating factor of common cold, fitment, climate, environment factors were 22.3% (33/148), 5.4% (8/148), 16.2% (24/148), 3.4% (5/148), the others was 4.7% (7/148), no obvious precipitating factor was 48.0% (71/148). The rate of parent or parents who had allergic disease history was 11.5% (17/148). Quality of sleep that 66.2% (98/148) were upset and 62.2% (92/148) had no cathexis., Conclusions: The preschool children have different clinical symptom characteristic from the school age children, and we got some clinical data of pediatric AR patients, those were beneficial to the diagnose and therapy of pediatric AR. The clinical data obtained in this study from pediatric AR patients are beneficial to the diagnosis and therapy of pediatric AR.

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between two serum specific IgE and skin prick test (SPT) for the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis., Methods: Two hundred and sixteen patients were referred to the allergist for a suspected allergic rhinitis between June and October in 2009. Patients were classified as positive for inhalant allergy if they had a positive clinical history and a related positive SPT for the suspected inhalant allergen. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS13.0 software., Results: One hundred and fifty-eight patients had a positive SPT, comparing with the SPT, the diagnostic indexes (accuracy, sensitivity, specificity) of the ImmunoCAP system and the AllergyScreen system were 0.810 and 0.819, 0.872 and 0.780, 0.741 and 0.862 respectively. The accuracy was similar between the two systems (χ(2) = 0.112, P > 0.05). The ImmunoCAP system had a higher sensitivity (χ(2) = 7.361, P < 0.05). The AllergyScreen system had a higher specificity (χ(2) = 10.222, P < 0.05)., Conclusions: This data supported the use of ImmunoCAP system and AllergyScreen system to identify potentially significant individual allergens in the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. The ImmunoCAP system had a higher sensitivity. The AllergyScreen system had a higher specificity. The AllergyScreen system can be used as a complementary with the ImmunoCAP system.

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of intranasal oligodeoxynucleotides with CpG motifs (CpG ODN) in prevention of allergic rhinitis in juvenile guinea pigs., Methods: Juvenile guinea pigs aged from 7 to 10 weeks were administrated with CpG ODN alone or combined with OVA at single dose concentration intranasally (on day 0, 5, 10, 15 in sequence) while control and blank group were administrated with saline. Both experimental and control animals were again sensitized by OVA (on day 18, 25), and 14 days after second sensitization animals were challenged by OVA intranasally (on days 39 and 46). Two hours after challenge, the animals were sacrificed. Then Hemotoxin and Eosin stain were carried out to analyze local eosinophilic reactions and nasal lesions. Local and systemic cytokines interleukin IL-5 and IFN-γ levels were examined by ELISA. Immunofluorescence was carried out with ICAM-1 antibody. Statistical analysis was performed using a SPSS 11.0 software., Results: In CpG ODN-administration or CpG ODN with OVA-administration group allergic rhinitis symptoms were not as severe as model control group (P < 0.05). Compared with the model control group, CpG ODN-administration did not increase production of OVA-specific Th1 cytokine IFN-γ but decreased productions of ovalbumin-specific Th2 cytokines IL-5 both in serum and nasal specimen (q value were 3.890 and 4.019, P < 0.05). Moreover, nasal lesions with infiltration of mean (x ± s) eosinophils (20.0 ± 9.6) in CpG group animal were prominently reduced by the CpG ODN-treatment compared with the control animals (53.5 ± 19.8) and CpG+OVA group (9.5 ± 5.7) were lower than CpG-M+OVA group (49.2 ± 18.9), the differences were significant (q value were 3.785 and 4.576, P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence results showed lower ICAM-1 expression in nasal specimen of CpG group compared with model group and CpG plus OVA group animal to CpG mimics plus OVA group (Z value were 3.697 and 3.765, P < 0.05)., Conclusions: Intranasal administration of CpG oligodeoxynucleotides with or without allergen may be an effective way to prevent the development of allergic rhinitis.