Background: Cuffed and uncuffed endotracheal tubes are commonly used for pediatric patients in surgery and emergency situations. It is still controversial which approach should be adopted. The purpose of the study was to compare the application of cuffed and uncuffed endotracheal tubes in pediatric patients. Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library for clinical trials, which compared the two applications in children. The study characteristics and clinical data were summarized by two independent reviewers. Meta-analysis of the data was done using Revman 5.3 software. Results: 6 studies with 4141 cases were included in this meta-analysis. The pooling analysis showed that more patients need tube changes in uncuffed than cuffed tubes (OR: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.05-0.10, P < 0.00001). However, there were no differences on intubation duration, reintubation occurrence, accidental extubation rate, croup occurrence and racemic epinephrine use during the intubation process. Also we didn’t find any differences on laryngospasm and stridor occurrence after extubation. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that uncuffed endotracheal tubes increased the need for tube changes. Other incidences or complications between the two groups had no differences. Cuffed tubes may be an optimal option for pediatric patients. But more trials are needed in the future.

Background: While irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common functional gastrointestinal diseases in clinical practice, it has diverse pathogenesis. Because of its sudden and lingering intractable symptoms, it seriously affects patients work and life. Opioid receptors are G protein-coupled receptors distributed across the brain, spinal cord, skin, and gastrointestinal tract, and each of the subtypes has a unique role and specific distribution. They play a role in regulating gastrointestinal motility, secretion, and visceral sensations in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, this meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effects of opioid receptor modulators on improving the symptoms of IBS. Methods: Searching the key words (Irritable Bowel Syndromes or Syndrome, Irritable Bowel OR Syndromes, Irritable Bowel OR Colon, Irritable OR Irritable Colon OR Colitis, Mucous OR Colitides, Mucous OR Mucous Colitides OR Mucous Colitis) AND (opioid receptor modulators OR eluxadoline OR Viberzi OR asimadoline OR loperamide), a preliminary search on PubMed (English), EMBASE (English), Cochrane Library (English), China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI, Chinese), WanFang (Chinese), VIP citation databases (Chinese) and SinoMed (Chinese) databases yielded 1023 papers published in English and Chinese from inception to July 1, 2019. Nine studies were included in the final meta-analysis. Because this is a systematic review and meta-analysis, ethical approval is not necessary. Results: The random-effects meta-analysis based on these 9 studies and their 4156 patients found that opioid receptor modulators have a statistically significant beneficial effect on IBS global symptoms (RR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.79–0.92, P < .01) and bowel movement frequency (SMD = −1.26, 95%CI = −2.49–−0.04, P < .05), and while there was an improvement trend in stool consistency and quality of life, these findings were not statistically significant. Conclusions: This is the first meta-analysis to examine the use of opioid receptor modulators in IBS, and few adverse events were reported in the available trials. Compared with the control group, eluxadolin has a better effect in improving IBS global symptoms and abdominal pain and has statistical significance and showed a low rate of constipation development in IBS patients in comparison with known effects of other opioid receptor modulators. However, current findings are based on a considerably limited evidence base with marked heterogeneity. Future studies should aim to identify subpopulations of patients with IBS and need to evaluate the long-term safety of these therapies. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020141597.

Background: Non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) is characterized by typical gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, such as heartburn and regurgitation but an absence of esophageal mucosal damage during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Although proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the first line therapy, almost 50% of patients with NERD fail to respond to this treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can better relieve the symptoms of NERD. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to investigate the efficiency of TCM granules based on Tongjiang (TJ) methodology combined with PPI step-down therapy for NERD patients who did not respond to PPIs alone. Method: This multicentered, double-blinded, RCT with two parallel groups will recruit 174 participants who will be randomized into the TCM granules combined with PPI step-down group (n = 87) and the TCM granules placebo combined with PPI step-down group (n = 87). Both groups of participants will receive 6 weeks of treatment and 4 weeks of follow-up, and all participants will be assessed for related symptoms, mental health status, and quality of life at each visit. The primary outcome measurements include visual analog scale (VAS) for heartburn and regurgitation and the major symptoms scale. The secondary outcome measurements include PPI withdrawal rate, symptom recurrence rate, minor symptoms scale, SF-36, PRO, SAS, SDS, GERD–HRQL, and TCM syndromes scales. Discussion: Previous research has shown that TCM is capable to alleviate NERD symptoms. This trial will help to provide a better understanding of the synergistic efficiency of the combination of TCM and PPIs, to explore whether the dosage of PPIs can be reduced after the supplement of TCM granules and to provide a feasible plan to reduce dependencies or withdraw NERD patients from PPIs. The outcome of this trial is expected to reduce the symptom recurrence rates, lessen patients’ physical and psychological burdens, and achieve good social benefits. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04340297. Registered on April 9, 2020

Background. This study investigated the pharmacological mechanisms of Tong-Xie-Yao-Fang (TXYF) against irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Methods. The chemical profile of TXYF was identified through UHPLC-QTOF-MS. Next, the obtained chemical profile served as the basis for network pharmacological analysis. Finally, the predictive performance of network pharmacology was validated by conducting molecular docking and animal experiment. Results. Seven key compounds of TXYF, namely, quercetin, ellagic acid, nobiletin, formononetin, isorhamnetin, vestitol, and licochalcone, were confirmed as the key components acting on IBS. TXYF treatment on IBS was mainly realized through the regulation of some key pathways of immune system, such as inflammatory bowel disease, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, HIF-1, and T cell receptor signaling pathway. NOS2, ACHE, ESR1, PTGS2, and RELA were the target genes of TXYF to improve IBS. Stable bonds between the key components and the core target genes were further verified by the results of molecular docking. In vivo experiments confirmed the effects of TXYF on IBS. Further Western blot analysis showed that NOS2, ACHE, and ERα were significantly upregulated in the model group in comparison with controls ( ) but then significantly downregulated after treatment with TXYF for 14 days ( ). Conclusion. This study applied an integrated method based on network pharmacology and experimental validation to examine the underlying “multicomponent, multitarget, and multipathway” mode of action of TXYF in treating IBS. The current findings provided indicative paradigms and new insights into exploring the multitarget therapeutic mechanism of Chinese herbal compound.

Background: Non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) is characterized by typical gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, such as heartburn and regurgitation, but an absence of oesophageal mucosal damage during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Although proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the first line therapy, almost 50% of patients with NERD fail to respond to this treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can better relieve the symptoms of NERD. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to investigate the efficiency of TCM granules based on Tongjiang (TJ) methodology combined with PPIs de-escalation therapy for NERD patients who did not respond to PPIs alone. Method: This multicentred, double-blinded, RCT with two parallel groups will recruit 174 participants who will be randomized into the TCM granules combined with PPIs de-escalation group (n=87) and the TCM granules placebo combined with PPIs de-escalation group (n=87). Both groups of participants will receive 6 weeks of treatment and 4 weeks of follow-up, and all participants will be assessed for related symptoms, mental health status and quality of life at each visit. The primary outcome measurements include Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for heartburn and regurgitation and the major symptoms scale. The secondary outcome measurements include PPI withdrawal rate, symptom recurrence rate, minor symptoms scale, SF-36, PRO, SAS, SDS, GERD–HRQL and TCM syndromes scales.Discussion: Previous research has shown that TCM is capable to alleviate NERD symptoms. This trial will help to provide a better understanding of the synergistic efficiency of the combination of TCM and PPIs, to explore whether the dosage of PPIs can be reduced after the supplement of TCM granules and to provide a feasible plan to reduce dependencies or withdraw NERD patients from PPIs. The outcome of this trial is expected to reduce the symptom recurrence rates, lessen patients’ physical and psychological burdens, and achieve good social benefits.Trial registration number: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT04340297