Search

This study compared the ankle‐brachial index (ABI) with transcutaneous oxygen pressure (TcPO2) in assessing peripheral vascular disease (PVD) prevalence in 100 diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) patients. Patients were categorized into vascular or nonvascular reconstruction groups and underwent both ABI and TcPO2 measurements four times over 6 months. Predictive validity for PVD diagnosis was analysed using the area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve (AUC). The study found TcPO2 to be a superior predictor of PVD than ABI. Among the DFU patients, 51 with abnormal TcPO2 values underwent vascular reconstruction. Only TcPO2 values showed significant pretreatment differences between the groups and increased post‐reconstruction. These values declined over a 6‐month follow‐up, whereas ABI values rose. For those with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD), TcPO2 values saw a sharp decrease within 3 months. Pre‐reconstruction TcPO2 was notably lower in amputation patients versus limb salvage surgery patients. In conclusion, TcPO2 is more effective than ABI for evaluating ischemic limb perfusion and revascularization necessity. It should be prioritized as the primary follow‐up tool, especially for ESRD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Over 1000-fold carbofuran resistance has been observed in Chilo suppressalis (Walker) collected from the Changhua ( CH) and Chiayi ( CY) prefectures of Taiwan. An understanding of the pertinent mechanisms will benefit effective insecticide resistance management of C. suppressalis. RESULTS Among the five amino acid substitutions of acetylcholinesterase ( AChE) identified in C. suppressalis, A314S and H668P had been reported and E101D, F402V and R667Q were novel. Substitution frequencies in AChE of CH and CY populations were much higher than in the susceptible Hsinchu ( HC) population. Significantly negative correlations were observed between the frequencies of E101D, A314S and R667Q and the kinetic parameters of AChEs in these populations. AChE from the resistant CH population was less susceptible to the inhibition of carbofuran, with an I50 that was 3.6-fold higher than that of the susceptible HC population. Although Km and Vmax of AChE from the CH and CY populations were reduced to 72-87% of those from the HC population, the overall catalytic efficiency ( Vmax/ Km) remained constant for all three populations. CONCLUSION Amino acid substitutions identified in the AChE of C. suppressalis are associated with changes in AChE kinetics and its insensitivity to carbofuran. These observations are helpful for rapid monitoring, prediction and management of OP and CB resistance in the field. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health education increases older adults' health knowledge and affects their health outcomes. Older adults have physical changes with aging, such as blurred vision and cognitive decline. Therefore, health education materials must be legible in their case. This study, following the "easy (EZ) to read" concept, designed oral health education material and tested the learning effectiveness of older adults in rural community-based care centers in central Taiwan. Three of the communities were provided EZ to read health education material (n = 72), while three were given general text material (n = 57) as the control group. We collected pre-test and post-test scores using the Mandarin version of the oral health literacy adult questionnaire (MOHL-AQ). The demographic background of the EZ to read and general text groups showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the EZ to read material significantly improved total scores of oral health literacy (p < 0.001). The chi-square test showed a significant improvement in oral health literacy levels (p < 0.001). We suggest applying EZ to read concepts to widen the field of older adult education and to reduce illegibility-induced health knowledge disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Busulfan has been used as a conditioning regimen in allogeneic hematopoietic cell stem transplantation (HSCT). Owing to a large inter-individual variation in pharmacokinetics, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM)-guided busulfan dosing is necessary to reduce graft failure and relapse rate. As there exists no TDM of busulfan administration for HCT in Taiwan, we conducted a pilot study to assess the TDM-dosing of busulfan in the Taiwanese population; Seven patients with HCT from The Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan, received conditioning regimens consisting of intravenous busulfan and other chemotherapies. After the initial busulfan dose, blood samples were collected for busulfan TDM at 5 min, 1 h, 2 h, and 3 h. Busulfan was extracted and detected by performing stable-isotope dilution LC–MS/MS. Plasma busulfan concentration was quantified and used for dose adjustment. Potential adverse effects of busulfan, such as mucositis and hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), were also evaluated; The LC–MS/MS method was validated with an analyte recovery of 88–99%, within-run and between-run precision of <15%, and linearity ranging from 10 to 10,000 ng/mL. Using TDM-guided busulfan dosing, dose adjustment was necessary and performed in six out of seven patients (86%) with successful engraftments in all patients (100%). Mild mucositis was observed, and VOD was diagnosed in only one patient; This single-center study in Taiwan demonstrated the importance of busulfan TDM in increasing the success rate of HCT transplantation. It is also necessary to further investigate the optimal busulfan target value in the Taiwanese population in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After being harvested, cacao beans are usually subjected to very complex processes in order to improve their chemical and physical characteristics, like tastefulness with chocolate characteristic flavors. The traditional process consists of three major processing stages: fermentation, drying, and roasting, while most of the fermentation is carried out by an on-farm in-box process. In Taiwan, we have two major cocoa beans, the red and the yellow. We proposed that the major factor affecting the variation in tastes and colors in the finished cocoa might be the difference between cultivars. To uncover this, we examined the effect of the three major processes including fermentation, drying and roasting on these two cocoa beans. Results indicated that the two cultivars really behaved differently (despite before or after processing with fermentation, drying, and roasting) with respect to the patterns of fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic, and arachidonic); triacylglycerols:1,2,3-trioleoyl-glycerol (OOO); 1-stearoyl-2,3-oleoyl-glycerol (SOO); 1-stearoyl-sn-2-oleoyl-3-arachidoyl- glycerol (SOA); 1,3-distearyol-sn-2-oleoyl-glycerol (SOS); organic acids (citric, tartaric, acetic, and malic); soluble sugars (glucose and fructose); amino acids; total phenolics; total flavonoids; and volatiles. Our findings suggest that to choose specific processing conditions for each specific cocoa genotype is the crucial point of processing cocoa with consistent taste and color.

Background: Gastrointestinal symptoms are not rare among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, but there have been no reports regarding convalescent plasma therapy for the recovery of gastrointestinal problems in COVID-19 patients., Case Presentation: We present two cases of patients with COVID-19-associated recurrent diarrhea and positive fecal occult blood who successfully recovered after a one-time convalescent plasma administration., Conclusion: When COVID-19 patients develop recurrent or refractory gastrointestinal symptoms and fail to respond to the available treatment, alternative therapy with convalescent plasma administration may be considered.

Changes in human life style have increased the incidence of obesity which has become a risk factor to human health. In Taiwan, the annual production of Citrus grandis [L.] reaches 75 000 tons, while the amount of waste fruits could reach 5%. We propose that abundant phytochemicals present in the wastes can be beneficial to attenuate obesity with hyperlipidemia. An animal Wistar rat model showed that pomelo flesh, peels, carpel (the segmental membrane), as well as the essential oil attenuated obesity as well as hyperlipidemia, and the AMPK-SREBP-PPARS pathway was involved. To further verify the mechanism, a HepG2 cell model was used to test some representative pomelo phytonutrients including limonene (Ln), γ-terpinene (γT), p-synephrine (SP), β-sitosterol (βS), and hesperidin (Hn). Data interestingly revealed it to be a multiple mechanism of anti-lipogenic bioactivity via downregulating the enzymes involved in both the cholesterol and triacylglyceride de novo biosynthesis (in the order of decreasing bioactivity): acetyl CoA carboxylase (Hn, SP, βS, Ln = γT), fatty acid synthase (Ln, γT, SP, βS, Hn), HMG-CoA synthase (Ln, Hn, SP, βS, γT), and HMG-CoA reductase (Hn, Ln, βS, γT, SP), and via upregulation of cholesterol-7α-monooxygenase (CYP7A1) (Hn, βS). In addition, all pomelo fruit parts enhanced the fecal crude lipid and sterol excretion capability. Thus, fruits of C. grandis can serve as a rather promising integrative antihyperlipidemic agent.