Since January 2020, novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) – infected pneumonia (COVID-19) rapidly spread in Korea. This study aimed to introduce the Korean Medicine (KM) telemedicine center for treatment of COVID patients in Korea. This work was a retrospective review of medical records on patients who received at least one telemedicine session from March 9, 2020 to April 12, 2020 provided by the COVID-19 telemedicine center of Korean Medicine. Data on demographic characteristics, treatment frequency, number of consultation were collected. A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to report characteristics of patients. A total of 1742 patients underwent consultation through KM telemedicine centers. Despite the rapid increase in the number of patients, the telemedicine center provided treatments to an average of 192 patients per day by about an average of 15 doctors. Furthermore, 4552 herbal medicines were prescribed through telemedicine center, among which 1366 cases (30%) being Qing-Fei-Pai-Du-tang. Telemedicine care also has shown that even with patient's residence transition, medical care can be continued without pause. These results show some advantages of the telemedicine center's implementation in terms of the effective use of medical resources and continuous treatment for patients.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an intractable disease associated with high morbidity and healthcare costs. Metabolites and gut microbes are areas of interest for mainstream and complementary and alternative medicine. We, therefore, aimed to contribute to the discovery of an integrative medicine for UC by comparing and analyzing gut microbes and metabolites in patients with UC and in healthy individuals. This was an observational case-control study. Blood and stool samples were collected from the participants, and metabolite and gut microbial studies were performed. Among metabolites, formate, glycolate, trimethylamine, valine, and pyruvate levels were significantly different between the two groups. Among gut microbes, the abundance of Bacteroidetes at the phylum level; Bacteroidia at the class level; Bacteroidales and Actinomycetales at the order level; Prevotellaceae, Acidaminococcaceae, and Leptotrichiaceae at the family level; and Prevotella, Roseburia, Paraprevotella, Phascolarctobacterium, Ruminococcus, Coprococcus, Clostridium_XIVB, Atopobium, and Leptotrichia at the genus level was also significantly different. Most of the metabolites and gut microbes significantly different between the two groups were involved in energy metabolism and inflammatory processes, respectively. The results of this study could be helpful for the identification of targets for integrative medicine approaches for UC.

Introduction: Even if levodopa, dopamine agonists, and others are used for patients with Parkinson’s disease, the effect is not sustained, and side effects such as motor fluctuation and dyskinesia are more likely to appear as the dose increases. Thus, new approaches for managing Parkinson’s disease are needed. This study aimed to compare the metabolites and gut microbes between patients with Parkinson’s disease and healthy individuals. Methods: This was an observational study with a case-control design. Metabolite and gut microbial analyses were performed using blood and stool samples collected from the subjects. Results: Among the metabolites, the acetate, citrate, methionine, and trimethylamine levels were significantly different between the two groups. In the gut microbes, abundance of Bacteroidetes, Prevotella, Phascolarctobacterium, Pseudoflavonifractor, Eisenbergiella, and Gemella were also significantly different between the two groups. Discussion: Metabolites are the products of gut microbes. Therefore, when the gut microbes change, the metabolites change accordingly. Metabolites and gut microbes that were significantly different between the two groups were mostly those involved in lipid and glucose metabolism. Our data may be helpful for the development of new drugs targeting metabolites and gut microbes through large-scale studies in the future.

Modern longitudinal studies collect feature data at many timepoints, often of the same order of sample size. Such studies are typically affected by dropout and positivity violations. We tackle these problems by generalizing effects of recent incremental interventions (which shift propensity scores rather than set treatment values deterministically) to accommodate multiple outcomes and subject dropout. We give an identifying expression for incremental intervention effects when dropout is conditionally ignorable (without requiring treatment positivity) and derive the nonparametric efficiency bound for estimating such effects. Then we present efficient nonparametric estimators, showing that they converge at fast parametric rates and yield uniform inferential guarantees, even when nuisance functions are estimated flexibly at slower rates. We also study the variance ratio of incremental intervention effects relative to more conventional deterministic effects in a novel infinite time horizon setting, where the number of timepoints can grow with sample size and show that incremental intervention effects yield near-exponential gains in statistical precision in this setup. Finally, we conclude with simulations and apply our methods in a study of the effect of low-dose aspirin on pregnancy outcomes.

Hyeon Joon Hong, Wanki Hong, Hyein Jeong, Kwangho Kim, Seongjun Park, Hyung-Cheal Mun, Kyeong Han Kim, Hongmin Chu. Korean J Acupunct 2024;41:155-62. https://doi.org/10.14406/acu.2024.023

Purpose: Cervical Myofascial Pain Syndrome (CMPS) is a common musculoskeletal disorder that significantly impacts daily life due to pain and restricted movement. This study focuses on Ultrasound-Guided Pharmacopuncture(UGP) to release fascial restrictions and alleviate nerve compression. By utilizing real-time ultrasound imaging, UGP is expected to enhance treatment accuracy, reduce adverse events, and improve clinical outcomes. This study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of UGP compared to Non-Guided Pharmacopuncture (NGP) in patients with acute CMPS. Patients and Methods: This multi-center prospective observational comparative study evaluates the efficacy and safety of UGP versus NGP in patients with acute CMPS. A minimum of 100 patients with acute CMPS (≤ 7 days since symptom onset) will be recruited from two hospitals and five Korean medicine clinics. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the UGP group (receiving ultrasound-guided pharmacopuncture with Hominis Placenta(HP) solution) or the NGP group (receiving non-guided pharmacopuncture with HP solution). A single treatment session will be conducted, with pre- and post-treatment assessments using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT), and Range of Motion (ROM). Additionally, a follow-up safety assessment will be conducted via telephone 24– 36 hours post-treatment. Discussion and Conclusion: This study is the first to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided HP pharmacopuncture for acute CMPS in a multi-center prospective comparative study. The findings are expected to provide comprehensive evidence supporting ultrasound-guided pharmacopuncture as an effective treatment for myofascial pain and may expand its clinical applications, particularly in Korean medicine clinics.