Association between tongue coating thickness and ultraviolet fluorescence in patients with functional dyspepsia: A prospective observational study

Noninvasive Diagnostic Technique for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Based on Features of Tongue Images

OBJECTIVE

To investigate a new noninvasive diagnostic model for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) based on features of tongue images.

METHODS

Healthy controls and volunteers confirmed to have NAFLD by liver ultrasound were recruited from China-Japan Friendship Hospital between September 2018 and May 2019, then the anthropometric indexes and sampled tongue images were measured. The tongue images were labeled by features, based on a brief protocol, without knowing any other clinical data, after a series of corrections and data cleaning. The algorithm was trained on images using labels and several anthropometric indexes for inputs, utilizing machine learning technology. Finally, a logistic regression algorithm and a decision tree model were constructed as 2 diagnostic models for NAFLD.

RESULTS

A total of 720 subjects were enrolled in this study, including 432 patients with NAFLD and 288 healthy volunteers. Of them, 482 were randomly allocated into the training set and 238 into the validation set. The diagnostic model based on logistic regression exhibited excellent performance: in validation set, it achieved an accuracy of 86.98%, sensitivity of 91.43%, and specificity of 80.61%; with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.93 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.68-0.98]. The decision tree model achieved an accuracy of 81.09%, sensitivity of 91.43%, and specificity of 66.33%; with an AUC of 0.89 (95% CI 0.66-0.92) in validation set.

CONCLUSIONS

The features of tongue images were associated with NAFLD. Both the 2 diagnostic models, which would be convenient, noninvasive, lightweight, rapid, and inexpensive technical references for early screening, can accurately distinguish NAFLD and are worth further study.

Mosapride Citrate Combined with Divine Qu Disinfectant Oral Liquid for Children Function Dyspepsia and the Influence of Serum Factors

In order to investigate the efficacy of mosapril citrate combined with ShenQu Xiaoshi oral liquid in the treatment of children with functional dyspepsia and the effect on serum cytokines, 136 children with functional dyspepsia admitted from May 2017 to September 2020 were divided into 2 groups randomly, 68 cases in each group. The western medicine group was treated with mosapril citrate tablets, and the combined group was treated with Shenqu xiaoshi oral liquid on the basis of the western medicine group. The efficacy of patients was evaluated 14 days after treatment, and the safety, symptom score, and serum cytokines of the two groups were compared. The results showed that, after 14 days of treatment, the scores of abdominal distension and abdominal pain (ADAP), lack of food (LOF), nausea and vomiting (NAV), irregular stool (IS), and mental fatigue (MF) in the combined group were all lower than those in the western group (P < 0.05). There was no statistical significance in the incidence of diarrhea, abnormal liver and kidney, and allergic rash between the two groups (p > 0.05). In conclusion, mosapride citrate tablets combined with Shenqu Xiaoshi oral liquid can achieve good therapeutic effects in children with functional dyspepsia, reduce symptom scores, improve serum cytokine levels, and have high drug safety, which is worthy of promotion and application.