Scale assessment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been widely implemented in clinical practice, how to choose an appropriate assessment tool is very important. In view of this, we used literature research methodology to search patient-reported outcomes and disease-specific health-related quality of life instruments for IBS, summarized their main contents and psychometric properties, then put forward recommendations on the selection of the instruments. A total of 37 commonly used instruments for IBS were retrieved, which have proven to have good reliability, validity and responsiveness, and can be better applied in clinical practice. We suggest medical professionals and researchers choose an assessment instrument for IBS according to the purpose and content of their research.

Patients with diabetic foot undergoing endovascular therapy for lower extremity arterial disease exhibit poor outcomes and a high mortality rate. It is unclear whether malnutrition assessed by geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) is associated with clinical outcomes in these patients.

To investigate the association of baseline malnutrition assessed by GNRI and clinical outcomes of endovascular therapy for lower extremity arterial disease in patients with diabetic foot.

Ninety-five patients who were admitted in Department of Endocrinology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital due to diabetic foot and lower extremity arterial disease were included from January 2011 to December 2016. All of them received endovascular therapy and followed up for two years. Baseline GNRI was assessed, and divided into three levels: normal nutrition (43 cases) , mild malnutrition (31 cases) and moderate to severe malnutrition (21 cases) . Clinical characteristics were collected, including sex, age, diabetes duration, smoking, body mass index, prevalence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetic foot classification, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and blood test results containing white blood cell count, platelet count, lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, hemoglobin, fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, albumin, creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, and the secondary endpoint was major lower extremity amputation. The Kaplan-Meier curve was used for survival analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis were analyzed to evaluate the risk factors of all-cause mortality.

Fifty-two cases (54.7%) were assessed with malnutrition (GNRI≤98) . Normal nutrition, mild malnutrition, and moderate to severe malnutrition patients had significant differences in average body mass index, leukocyte count, neutrophil count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, hemoglobin, triglyceride and albumin (P<0.05) . During the follow-up, 16 patients died, 10 of whom were due to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases; five patients underwent major lower extremity amputation. The two-year survival rate was 92.1%, 75.6% and 50.1% in normal nutrition, mild malnutrition, and moderate to severe malnutrition patients, respectively, showing statistically significant difference (Log-rank test: χ²=10.812, P=0.004) . GNRI≤98〔HR=3.937, 95%CI (1.070, 13.942) , P=0.037〕 was an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality.

The two-year survival rate of patients in normal nutrition group (GNRI>98) was higher than that in malnutrition group (GNRI≤98) . Baseline GNRI-assessed malnutrition may be an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality in diabetic foot patients with lower extremity arterial disease treated by endovascular therapy, so assessing and improving the nutritional status may better improve the clinical outcome of these patients.

The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) increases annually in China. The integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine is helpful to alleviate and control symptoms of IBD. Quality of life (QoL) is an important index to evaluate the clinical efficacy of IBD. However, there are few studies about IBD patient-reported outcomes (PROs) based on TCM theories.

To determine the framework and items, and then use them to develop the IBD PROs scale using TCM theories.

Under the guidance of the TCM theory of "body and mind harmony, and man's adaptation to his total environment" , literature review, core-group discussion and expert consultation were carried out. The conceptual framework and item pool of the draft of an IBD PROs scale were developed, then the corresponding items were determined, forming the draft of the IBD PROs scale. Then the draft scale was pre-tested in IBD patients treated in Department of Spleen and Stomach Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine from January to June 2021. The dispersion tendency, Cronbach's α and correlation analysis were used for further item selection.

The final IBD PROs scale is composed of two domains: body and mind harmony (12 body-related items, and 9 mind-related items) and man's adaptation to his total environment (6 items) .

The IBD PROs scale developed based on theories of TCM could be used to evaluate the QoL of IBD patients. But further clinical research is still needed to verify its reliability and validity.