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Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Background: Colorectal cancer is a frequent cause of cancer-related mortality in patients with lymph node or distant metastases. Pericolonic tumor deposits (TDs) are considered prognostically distinct from lymph node metastases., Aim: To investigate risk factors for extranodal TDs in stage III colon cancer., Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study. We selected 155 individuals diagnosed with stage III colon cancer from the database of the Cancer Registry of the Tri-Service General Hospital. The patients were allocated into the groups with/without N1c. Multivariate Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier method were done. The primary outcomes investigate the association between the covariates and extranodal TDs, and prognostic significance of the covariates regarding the survival., Results: There were 136 individuals in the non-N1c group and 19 individuals in the N1c group. Patients with lymphovascular invasion (LVI) had a higher risk of TDs. Overall survival rates of patients with and without LVI were 6.64 years and 8.61 years, respectively ( P = 0.027). The N1c patients without LVI had higher overall survival than those who with LVI (7.73 years vs 4.42 years, P = 0.010)., Conclusion: Patients having stage III colon cancer with LVI have a higher probability of having TDs than those with stage III colon cancer without LVI. Stage III colon cancer patients with TDs and LVI could have poor prognosis and outcome., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report., (©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been proposed as a risk factor in infertility. However, to date, the association between OSA and male infertility has not been examined in a population-based study., Objective: To investigate the risk factor of OSA in male infertility and the outcome of OSA treatment for the risk of male infertility., Design, Setting, and Participants: This case-control population-based study collected data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, a subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Male patients with a diagnosis of infertility and at least 3 outpatient visits or 1 hospitalization between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2013, were included and matched by age, sex, and date of infertility diagnosis with individuals without an infertility diagnosis. Data analysis was performed from October 22, 2018, to April 22, 2019., Exposures: Patients with male infertility and randomly selected patients without male infertility were matched using a 1:4 propensity score matching ratio., Main Outcomes and Measures: A primary outcome was the risk factor of OSA (diagnosed through polysomnography). A secondary outcome was the association of the risk of male infertility with OSA exposure time interval (short term, middle term, and long term) and OSA management (ie, none, continuous positive airway pressure, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, or both)., Results: A total of 4607 male patients with infertility (mean [SD] age, 34.18 [5.44] years) and 18 428 control patients (mean [SD] age, 34.28 [5.81] years) were included. In the multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis, OSA was an independent risk factor associated with infertility (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.24; 95% CI, 1.10-1.64; P = .003). The absolute risk was 0.204 (95% CI, 0.092-0.391). For patients with OSA in the group without treatment, the adjusted OR was 1.80 (95% CI, 1.56-2.07; P < .001) for infertility compared with patients without OSA., Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this study support the hypothesis that OSA increases the risk of infertility in male patients, and the risk is associated with the OSA exposure time. Furthermore, no OSA management or treatment is associated with a higher infertility risk.

A within-person diary research design with 39 full-time workers was used to examine the effects of daily cross-domain usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on job-related performance and stress in both workplace and home domains. Segmentation preference effects on links between cross-domain ICT usage and both job performance and job stress were also analyzed. A positive association was found for the first relationship in mixed home-workplace contexts, and a negative association for the second in home contexts only. A stronger segmentation preference effect on the negative relationship between cross-domain ICT usage and job stress was found for integrators (employees who integrate work and home domains) compared to separators (employees who separate work/non-work activities). Our findings suggest that daily cross-domain ICT usage can enhance job performance and reduce job stress, with a moderating effect of segmentation preference on the link between cross-domain ICT usage and job stress.

Background: The impact of serum phosphorus concentration on metabolic syndrome were limited. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association between the serum phosphorus and incident metabolic syndrome in the elderly in Taiwan., Methods: We included 1491 participants who had health check-ups in the Tri-Service General Hospital for the period 2007 to 2015 and divided them based on age to assess the incidence of metabolic syndrome. We performed the COX regression model to explore the impact of serum phosphorus for metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension by an age-specific group., Results: Our result showed that higher serum phosphorus concentration was noted in the elderly in the baseline characteristics. In the group older than 60 years, serum phosphorus concentration was correlated with the incidence of metabolic syndrome (hazard ratios (HR) = 1.39, 95% CI 1.11-1.74) and diabetes mellitus (HR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.15-1.92) after adjustment. We further found the relationship between serum phosphorus and incidence of the components of metabolic syndrome, including higher waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), serum triglyceride, and fast glucose., Conclusions: Our study might provide an epidemiological evidence that serum phosphorus was related with the incidence of metabolic syndrome in the elderly in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND Tubular papillary adenoma is a rare eccrine-derivate dermal adnexal tumor, located in the scalp mostly. Earlier, the sebaceous cyst size was larger than 5 cm in diameter and may be confused with subcutaneous tumor. Cases of the tumor on the buttock with rapid growth are rare, therefore magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be helpful to determine their precise size, nature, and invasion of nearby organs for further confirmation. CASE REPORT We report on a case of a 35-year-old male with a rapid-growth tumor on the buttock. Initially, he had received drainage by syringe and the amount of drainage was 50 mL. MRI favored diagnosis of sebaceous cyst. As for recurrent tumor, the pathology revealed tubular papillary adenoma. CONCLUSIONS MRI might play an important role on imaging of soft tissue to exclude some uncertain malignant tumors. This case report indicated a rare case of a large rapid-growing tubular papillary adenoma on the buttock that required further management.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has received much attention in recent decades and has been a novel inflammatory marker. NLR has been applied in predicting the prognosis of malignancies, mortality, and chronic diseases. Additionally, hypertension, defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mm Hg, a previous diagnosis of hypertension, and taking any antihypertensive drug, has been one of the most common chronic diseases in Asia and is currently the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases worldwide. Thus, we aimed to investigate the correlation between NLR and prevalent hypertension in the Taiwanese population. From the data of routine health checkups at the General Health Promotion Center in the Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH), a total of 6278 participants were included. The NLR value was divided into tertiles. The Cox regression model revealed that the highest NLR group tended to be hypertensive (HR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.03-1.59) after adjustment. Individuals were also divided into age-specific, BMI-specific, or sex-specific groups; compared with the lowest NLR group, elderly individuals in the highest tertile of NLR were relatively likely to be hypertensive after covariate adjustment (HR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.19-2.96). Furthermore, a male group aged more than 60 years was reported to have a significant association with hypertension (HR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.06-3.18). However, there was no significant difference in the BMI-based stratified groups, even after adjustment. Our research revealed a significant association between the NLR and incident hypertension, especially in elderly or male Taiwanese individuals.