Registry-based stroke research in Taiwan: past and future

Cheng-Yang Hsieh,Darren Philbert Wu3,,Sheng-Feng Sung 한국역학회 2018 Epidemiology and Health Vol.40 No.-

Stroke registries are observational databases focusing on the clinical information and outcomes of stroke patients. They play an important role in the cycle of quality improvement. Registry data are collected from real-world experiences of stroke care and are suitable for measuring quality of care. By exposing inadequacies in performance measures of stroke care, research from stroke registries has changed how we manage stroke patients in Taiwan. With the success of various quality improvement campaigns, mortality from stroke and recurrence of stroke have decreased in the past decade. After the implementation of a nationwide stroke registry, researchers have been creatively expanding how they use and collect registry data for research. Through the use of the nationwide stroke registry as a common data model, researchers from many hospitals have built their own stroke registries with extended data elements to meet the needs of research. In collaboration with information technology professionals, stroke registry systems have changed from web-based, manual submission systems to automated fill-in systems in some hospitals. Furthermore, record linkage between stroke registries and administrative claims databases or other existing databases has widened the utility of registry data in research. Using stroke registry data as the reference standard, researchers have validated several algorithms for ascertaining the diagnosis of stroke and its risk factors from claims data, and have also developed a claims-based index to estimate stroke severity. By making better use of registry data, we believe that we will provide better care to patients with stroke.

Chemical Composition and Antibacterial Activities of Illicium verum Against Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogens

Jyh-Ferng Yang,Cheng-Hong Yang,Hsueh-Wei Chang,Cheng-San Yang,Shao-Ming Wang,Ming-Che Hsieh,Li-Yeh Chuang 한국식품영양과학회 2010 Journal of medicinal food Vol.13 No.5

In recent years, human pathogenic microorganisms have developed multiple drug resistance and caused serious nosocomial infections. In this study, we identified four new antimicrobial compounds from the Chinese herbal medicine Illicium verum and assessed their antibacterial efficacies. The supercritical CO2 and ethanol extracts of Illicium verum showed substantial antibacterial activity against 67 clinical drug-resistant isolates, including 27 Acinetobacter baumannii, 20 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 20 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The diethyl ether (EE) fraction obtained from partition extraction and supercritical CO2 extracts revealed an antibacterial activity with a minimum inhibitory concentration value of 0.15–0.70mg/mL and 0.11mg/mL, respectively. The EE fraction of I. verum showed synergetic effects with some commercial antibiotics. The antimicrobial mechanism was investigated with killing curves and scanning electron microscopy observation. The chemical components of the extracts were analyzed by spectrophotometry; (E)-anethole, anisyl acetone, anisyl alcohol, and anisyl aldehyde exhibited antibacterial activity against different clinical isolates. These extracts from I. verum can be further developed into antibiotic medicines due to their proven antibacterial activity.

INVESTIGATING THE PHYSIOLOGYCAL RESPONSES TO SUBLETHAL NITRITE EXPOSURE IN TILAPIA

Cheng-Hao Tang,Yi-Jang Hsieh,Shao-Yang Hu,Pei-Jie Meng,Ming-Yih Leu 한국수산과학회 양식분과 2015 한국수산과학회 양식분과 학술대회 Vol.2015 No.5

Depletion and Phase Transformation of a Submicron Ni(P) Film in the Early Stage of Soldering Reaction between Sn-Ag-Cu and Au/Pd(P)/Ni(P)/Cu

Cheng-En Ho,Wan-Zhen Hsieh,Tsung-Hsun Yang 대한금속·재료학회 2015 ELECTRONIC MATERIALS LETTERS Vol.11 No.1

The early stage of soldering reaction between Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solderand ultrathin-Ni(P)-type Au/Pd(P)/Ni(P)/Cu pad was investigatedby field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) inconjunction with field-emission electron probe microanalysis (FEEPMA)and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM). FE-SEM, FE-EPMA, and HRTEM investigationsshowed that Ni2SnP and Ni3P were the predominant P-containingintermetallic compounds (IMCs) in the soldering reaction and thattheir growth behaviors strongly depended on the depletion of Ni(P). The growth of Ni3P dominated over that of Ni2SnP in the earlystage of soldering, whereas the Ni3P gradually transformed intoNi2SnP after Ni(P) depletion. This Ni(P)-depletion-induced Ni2SnPgrowth behavior is different from the reaction mechanisms reported in the literature. Detailed analyses of the microstructuralevolution of the IMC during Ni(P) depletion were conducted, and a two-stage reaction mechanism was proposed to rationalizethe unique IMC growth behavior.

Allicin Inhibits Glutamate Release from Rat Cerebral Cortex Nerve Terminals Through Suppressing Ca2+ Influx and Protein Kinase C Activity

Cheng Wei Lu,Chi-Feng Hung,Tzu Yu Lin,Ting Yang Hsieh,Su-Jane Wang 한국식품영양과학회 2019 Journal of medicinal food Vol.22 No.7

Evidence indicates that indirect inhibitory regulation of glutamatergic transmission, via reducing glutamate release, may induce neuroprotection. The present work was designed to examine whether allicin, a major component of garlic with neuroprotective effects, affected the release of glutamate evoked by 4-aminopyridine in rat cerebrocortical nerve terminals (synaptosomes). Allicin caused a potent inhibition on the release of glutamate evoked by 4-aminopyridine, and this inhibitory effect was abolished in the presence of Ca2+-free medium and vesicular transporter inhibitor. Allicin decreased the 4-aminopyridine-evoked elevation of intrasynaptosomal Ca2+ levels, but had no effect on the synaptosomal plasma membrane potential. The allicin-mediated inhibition of glutamate release was prevented by the N- and P/Q-type channel blocker and the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, but was not affected by the intracellular Ca2+-release inhibitors, mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor, and protein kinase A inhibitor. Western blotting data also showed that allicin significantly reduced the phosphorylation of PKC. Together, these data indicate that in rat cerebrocortical nerve terminals, allicin depresses glutamate release and appears to decrease N- and P/Q-type Ca2+ channel and PKC activity.

Delay of Surgery for Spinal Metastasis due to the COVID-19 Outbreak Affected Patient Outcomes

Chia-Jung Hsieh,Chun-Yu Wu,Yen-Heng Lin,Yu-Cheng Huang,Wen-Chi Yang,Tom Wei-Wu Chen,Wei-Li Ma,Wei-Hsin Lin,Feng-Ming Hsu,Furen Xiao,Shih-Hung Yang,Dar-Ming Lai,Chang-Mu Chen,Shin-Yi Chao,Fon-Yih Tsuan 대한척추신경외과학회 2023 Neurospine Vol.20 No.4

Objective: The present study is to analyze the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 2019) outbreak and the subsequent lockdown on the outcomes of spinal metastasis patients. Methods: The study was a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort study. All patients underwent surgical intervention for spinal metastases between January 2019 and December 2021 and had at least 3 months of postoperative follow-up. The primary outcome was overall mortality during the 4 different stages (pre-COVID-19 era, COVID-19 pandemic except in Taiwan, national lockdown, lifting of the lockdown). The secondary outcomes were the oncological severity scores, medical/surgical accessibility, and patient functional outcome during the 4 periods as well as survival/mortality. Results: A total of 233 patients were included. The overall mortality rate was 41.20%. During the Taiwan lockdown, more patients received palliative surgery than other surgical methods, and no total en bloc spondylectomy was performed. The time from surgeon visit to operation was approximately doubled after the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan (75.97, 86.63, 168.79, and 166.91 hours in the 4 periods, respectively). The estimated survival probability was highest after the national lockdown was lifted and lowest during the lockdown. In the multivariate analysis, increased risk of mortality was observed with delay of surgery, with emergency surgery having a higher risk with delays above 33 hours, urgent surgery (below 59 and above 111 hours), and elective surgery (above 332 hours). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and related policies have altered daily clinical practice and negatively impacted the survival of patients with spinal metastases.

Real-world Evaluation of Tolerability, Safety and Efficacy of Rivastigmine Oral Solution in Patients with Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Sun-Wung Hsieh,Jui-Cheng Chen,Nai-Ching Chen,Kai-Ming Jhang,Wenfu Wang,Yuan-Han Yang 대한정신약물학회 2021 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.19 No.3

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of titrating dose of rivastigmine oral solution in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Taiwan. Methods: We recruited 108 mild to moderate AD patients with RivastⓇ (rivastigmine oral solution 2 mg/ml) treatment for 52 weeks. We recorded the demographic characteristics, initial cognition by mini-mental state examination (MMSE), initial global status by clinical dementia rating (CDR) with CDR-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), initial dose, and titrating dose at each visit. We investigated the adherence, proportion of possible side effects, optimal dose, and time to optimal dose. We demonstrated the proportion of cognitive decline and its possible risk factors. Results: During the course, 9 patients discontinued the rivastigmine oral solution due to poor compliance or preference. Twelve out of 99 patients (12.1%) reported possible side effects. Among 87 patients, the mean age was 77.2 ± 9.0 years ago with female predominant (65.2%). The optimal dose was 3.6 ± 1.4 ml in average and 4 ml (n = 31, 35.6%) in mode. The duration to optimal dose was 12.5 ± 10.2 weeks and 24 weeks (n = 35, 40.2%) in mode. It presented 25% with cognitive decline in MMSE, 27% with global function decline in CDR and 63% with global function decline in CDR-SB. Conclusion: We demonstrated the clinical experience of rivastigmine oral solution in mild to moderate AD patients. It suggested rivastigmine oral solution 4ml is the optimal dose with 24 weeks to the optimal dose for at least one third of patients.

Design and Characterization of a Capillary-Driven and Parallelized Microfluidic Chip for Distributing a Liquid Plug

Pin-Chuan Chen,Yan-Fong Cheng,Kung-Chia Young,Hung-Lin Hsieh,Chin-Lung Yang 한국정밀공학회 2016 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.17 No.11

To realize a portable, capillary-driven, and parallelized microfluidic chip, how to evenly distribute a liquid plug from the inlet to multiple daughter microchannels is a challenging task. Two approaches were adopted to generate sufficient capillary pressure to allow a liquid plug spontaneously flowing through bifurcation features, including enlarging the contact perimeter between the liquid plug and microchannel walls and applying hydrophilic coating to the microchannel walls. A 1-to-2 bifurcation microfluidic chip and a 1-to-4 bifurcation microfluidic chip were designed and fabricated on PMMA substrates for experiments. Initially red food dye was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the chips, and experiment results revealed that the 1-to-2 microfluidic chip is capable of 100% liquid splitting efficiency with a CV of 5.7% whereas the 1-to-4 microfluidic chip is capable of 83% liquid splitting efficiency with a CV of 6.7%. After successfully conducting experiments with red food dye, human whole blood and blood plasma were introduced into the 1-to-2 microfluidic chips and splitting efficiency was investigated. The experiment results showed a 33% and 67% splitting efficiency for human whole blood and blood plasma, respectively. And the lower splitting efficiency can be attributed to the complex and Non-Newtonian fluidic property of the blood.

Capsaicin-Sensitive Sensory Nerves Indirectly Modulate Motor Function of the Urinary Bladder

Hsi-Hsien Chang,Shang-Jen Chang,Cheng-Hsing Hsieh,Chun-Kai Hsu,Stephen Shei-Dei Yang 대한배뇨장애요실금학회 2018 International Neurourology Journal Vol.22 No.2

Purpose: The urinary bladder (UB) is innervated by both sensory and autonomic nerves. Recent studies have shown that sensory neuropeptides induced contractions in the detrusor muscle. Therefore, in a mouse model, we investigated the presence of interactions between the submucosal sensory nerves and the autonomic nerves that regulate the motor function of the detrusor muscle. Methods: UB samples from male C57BL/6 mice were isolated, cut into strips, and mounted in an organ bath. Dose-response curves to norepinephrine and phenylephrine were studied in UB strips with and without mucosa, and the effects of preincubation with a receptor antagonist and various drugs on relaxation were also studied using tissue bath myography. Results: Phenylephrine-induced relaxation of the UB strips showed concentration-related effects. This relaxation appeared in both mucosa-intact and mucosa-denuded UB strips, and was significantly inhibited by lidocaine, silodosin, and guanethidine (an adrenergic neuronal blocker). Meanwhile, phenylephrine-induced relaxation was inhibited by pretreatment with propranolol and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)–depletory capsaicin in UB strips with and without mucosa. Conclusions: The present study suggests that phenylephrine activates the α-1A adrenergic receptor (AR) of the sensory nerve, and then activates capsaicin-sensitive sensory nerves to release an unknown substance that facilitates the release of norepinephrine from adrenergic nerves. Subsequently, norepinephrine stimulates β-ARs in the detrusor muscle in mice, leading to neurogenic relaxation of the UB. Further animal and human studies are required to prove this concept and to validate its clinical usefulness.

The Different Expression of Gene Profiles on Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells with Different Intracellular Hepatitis C Viral Load

( Chia-yen Dai ),( Shu-chi Wang ),( Meng-hsuan Hsieh ),( Cheng-fu Yang ),( Ching-i Huang ),( Chung-feng Huang ),( Ming-lun Yeh ),( Jee-fu Huang ),( Wang-long Chung ),( Ming-lung Yu ) 대한간학회 2017 춘·추계 학술대회 (KASL) Vol.2017 No.1

Aims: The different hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication has been reported among individual hepatocytes in chronic HCV infection by identifying hepatocytes with different HCV RNA levels. We have previously established a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) protocol to study the effects of different intracellular viral loads in HCV-infected cells. The present study aimed to further study the gene expression on different hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells with different HCV viral load. Methods: The JFH1-EYFP viral florescence intensity was used to sort the high and low viral load cells after 5 days infection in vitro which has been shown in our previous study that infected cells efficiently and accurately discriminated between high- and low-viral load cell populations. The next generation sequence-RNA sequence was used to clarify the mRNA and miRNA gene network between HCV-high and HCV-low infected cells of the HCC cell line. Venn diagram summarizing the probe sets that were differentially expressingbetween the Huh7.5.1 versus each differential viral load cell population and miRDB and miRTar databases were used to predict HVL and LVL/S2 unique miRNA target genes. Results: By analyzing the NGS dataset and miRNA microarray dataset, of the significant transcripts, three miRNA were unique for the LVL/S2 cells and nine miRNA unique for the HVL. Twenty-three miRNA were common for all 3 viral load groups. We verified them by q-PCR and data confirmed the array data expression level. We found that high viral loads were associated with cell inflammation- and cell death-associated pathway; and the low viral loads were associated many stress response- and cell adhesion molecular (CAMs)-related genes. Conclusions: With the established cell sorting protocol, we have demonstrated that different gene network between HCV-high and HCV-low infected cells in JFH1-EYFP infectious cells exists. Our results may provide a boarder gene regulation map between high and low viral load cell populations.