Yingjie Zhang

PURPOSE: To assess possible differences in clinical outcomes when small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) and femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK (FS-LASIK) are used to correct myopia. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic literature search was performed using Cochrane Collaboration methodology to identify randomized controlled trials and appropriate comparative studies comparing SMILE and FS-LASIK for myopia. RESULTS: The authors identified 11 studies from a review of 102 articles, involving a total of 1,101 eyes, of which 532 eyes (48.32%) underwent SMILE and 569 eyes (51.68%) underwent FS-LASIK. No significant difference between the two procedures was evident in terms of final refractive spherical equivalent (P = .72), the proportion of eyes losing one or more lines of corrected distance visual acuity after surgery (P = .69), or the proportion of eyes achieving an uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/20 or better (P = .35) and a refractive spherical equivalent within ±1.00 diopter of the target values (P = .70). The tear break-up time was longer in the SMILE group than the FS-LASIK group at 1 (P = .004) and 6 (P = .02) months after surgery. Corneal sensitivity was higher in the SMILE group than in the FS-LASIK group at 1 week (P < .00001) and 1 (P < .0001), 3 (P < .00001), and 6 (P < .003) months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: SMILE and FS-LASIK were comparable in terms of both safety and efficacy. SMILE may create fewer dry eye symptoms than FS-LASIK. Corneal sensitivity was greater after SMILE than FS-LASIK.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the spatial-temporal interaction effect within a Bayesian framework and to probe the ecological influential factors for tuberculosis. METHODS: Six different statistical models containing parameters of time, space, spatial-temporal interaction and their combination were constructed based on a Bayesian framework. The optimum model was selected according to the deviance information criterion (DIC) value. Coefficients of climate variables were then estimated using the best fitting model. RESULTS: The model containing spatial-temporal interaction parameter was the best fitting one, with the smallest DIC value (-4,508,660). Ecological analysis results showed the relative risks (RRs) of average temperature, rainfall, wind speed, humidity, and air pressure were 1.00324 (95% CI, 1.00150-1.00550), 1.01010 (95% CI, 1.01007-1.01013), 0.83518 (95% CI, 0.93732-0.96138), 0.97496 (95% CI, 0.97181-1.01386), and 1.01007 (95% CI, 1.01003-1.01011), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The spatial-temporal interaction was statistically meaningful and the prevalence of tuberculosis was influenced by the time and space interaction effect. Average temperature, rainfall, wind speed, and air pressure influenced tuberculosis. Average humidity had no influence on tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Traditional Chinese exercise (TCE) includes a variety of exercise, which is being accepted by more and more people in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) from different countries. With the attendant, many clinical reports focus on it. Our meta-analysis aimed to systematically assess the effects of traditional Chinese exercise on pain, stiffness, physical function, quality of life, mental health and adverse events in people with knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Web of Science, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched from the time of their inception through April 2016 and risk of bias was independently assessed by two authors. Outcome measures included pain, physical functional, joint stiffness, quality of life, mental health and safety. For pooled outcomes, standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. RESULTS: Eight randomized controlled trials with a sample size of 375 cases met the criteria to be included in the study indicating that high quality literature is lacking in this field. Results of the meta-analysis showed that short-term TCE could relieve pain (SMD: -0.77;95% CI: -1.13 to -0.41; P<0.0001), improve physical function (SMD -0.75; 95% CI: -0.98 to -0.52; P<0.00001), and alleviate stiffness (SMD: -0.56; 95%: CI -0.96 to -0.16; P<0.006), but had no significant effect on quality of life (SMD: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.97; P = 0.005), and mental health (SMD 4.12; 95% CI: -0.50 to 8.73; P = 0.08). Moreover, TCE was not associated with serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Our systematic review revealed that short-term TCE was potentially beneficial in terms of reducing pain, improving physical function and alleviating stiffness. These results may suggest that TCE could prove useful as an adjuvant treatment for patients with knee OA. Further studies are urgently needed to confirm these results.