Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine

383-384

Authors: Saurabh Bhargava

None.

400-408

Authors: Shahlla Imam, Muneeba Aijaz, Wajiha Iffat, Shazia Qasim Jamshed, Nahlah Elkudssiah Ismail 5,6, Ganesh Sritheran Paneerselvam, Khang Wen Goh, Long Chiau Ming, Halima Sadia, Iqbal Azhar

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities among patients with cancer in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2021 to December 2021. Five hundred patients with cancer were invited to participate in the study. Electronic databases, namely, Google scholar, Publons, EMBASE, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, and ResearchGate was used for questionnaire designed. The self-administered survey included questions on demographic characteristics, education level, socio-economic conditions and information about CAM therapies, prevalence, effectiveness, and common CAM modalities. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS software version 22. Results: Out of the 500 invited patients, 433 (86.6%) successfully completed and returned the questionnaires. In contrast to patients who were with younger, highly educated, professionally active, higher income, and had advanced cancer, time since diagnosis, type of treatment, cancer types and family history are significantly associated with CAM use. The results showed that 59.8% of the participants were acquainted with complementary and/or alternative medicine and considered safe owing to its natural ingredients. The prevalence of CAM usage among cancer patients was 40.9% and the most widely used CAM modality was herbal medicine (27.7%) and dietary supplements (28.8%). Patients used CAM as a complementary therapy to improve the morphological parameter (28.2%), strengthen the immune system (6.8%), and to decrease the side effects of conventional treatment (18.1%). Most of the respondents get the information regarding CAM therapy from the electronic media (43.2%) and the family members (48%) rather than healthcare personnel. Conclusions: Participants used CAM modalities along with the conventional health care practices. Further multicentre studies should be conducted to provide information regarding the usage of CAM therapies and their eventual benefits in patients with cancer.

418-424

Authors: Bin Liu, Liang Li, Lei Liu, Min Ye, Wei Zhang, Xiangdong Zhou, Qi Li

Objective: To evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of Lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) capsules in patients with high-risk common type COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: A retrospective multicenter study on 383 high-risk common type COVID-19 pneumonia cases was conducted. Patients were categorized as the standard treatment (SDT) group (n=168) and the LHQW+SDT group (n=215). The primary endpoint was the rate of symptom (fever, fatigue, coughing) recovery and the secondary endpoints included the time to symptom recovery, the proportion of patients with improvement in chest CT images, the proportion of patients with clinical cure, the timing and rate of negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA assay. Results: The recovery rate was significantly higher in the LHQW+SDT group as compared with the SDT group (89.7% vs. 72.0%, P<0.01). The combined use of LHQW+SDT also showed shorter time for symptom recovery, as well as shorter time for individual symptom of fever, fatigue and coughing recovery than use of SDT alone. A higher proportion of patients in the LHQW+SDT group with improvements in chest CT images and clinical cure (77.7% vs. 57.1%, P<0.01) but the proportion of patients deteriorating to severe cases (1% vs. 25%, P<0.01) in this group was significant lower than those in the SDT group. No significant difference in negative conversion rate of viral assay results was observed (76.8% vs. 75.0%, P>0.05). No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusions: LHQW capsules could be recommended to ameliorate clinical symptoms and reduce the rate of deteriorating to severe cases for high-risk common type COVID-19 pneumonia.

428-430

Authors: Lee Phone Youth Zen, Meng Yee Lai, Mohd Hafizi Abdul Hamid, Jenarun Jelip, Rose Nani Mudin, Noor Hafizan Bt Mat Salleh, Netty Darwina Dawam, Nirzayanna Eyan Abdul Ajak, Mohd Ashrin Afiq Bin Zainudin, Yee Ling Lau

None.