Nationwide Prevalence and Outcomes of Long-Term Nasogastric Tube Placement in Adults.

Tube feeding (TF) is commonly used for patients with severe swallowing disturbance, and patients with chronic dysphagia are often provided with a long-term nasogastric tube (NGT). However, nationwide epidemiological data on long-term NGT placement are limited. The present study identified the prevalence and outcomes of patients with long-term NGT placement in Taiwan.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Visual Hallucinations in Patients with Vascular Cognitive Impairment.

Visual hallucinations (VHs) are striking features for dementia, especially dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We aimed to study the frequency and associated factors of VH in vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and investigate the feasibility of clinically diagnosing the mixed pathology of VCI with DLB. This is a multicentre registration study.

Function-based dementia severity assessment for vascular cognitive impairment.

Background/purposes: Unimpaired activities of daily living (ADL) is essential for the diagnosis of normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment. However, diagnosis according to this concept is difficult to apply to patients comorbid with motor dysfunction. We aim to use a novel ADL questionnaire for operationally diagnosing unimpaired ADL in vascular cognitive impairment with no dementia (VCIND).

Simultaneous determination of adenosine and its metabolites by capillary electrophoresis as a rapid monitoring tool for 5'-nucleotidase activity.

A simple and rapid capillary electrophoretic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of micro-molar adenosine, hypoxanthine and inosine in enzyme assays without using radioactive labeled substrates. Prior to electrophoretic separation, addition of acetonitrile and sodium chloride to the assay solution and brief centrifugation are recommended for the purpose of sample cleanup and sample stacking. Under the optimal condition, the good separation with high efficiency was achieved in 6 min.