Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the metabolomic profiles of urine samples obtained from smokers who smoked cigarettes with low and high nicotine content.
Methods: Three smokers participated in this study. They were given low-nicotine (LN) cigarettes, and urine was collected at the end of the third day for the LN group.
Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLDs)/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are the most common liver disorders among patients with type 2 diabetes. Newer classes of glucose-lowering agents (GLAs), such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is), have been shown to improve liver-related biomarkers. However, their effects on the development of NAFLD/NASH remain inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aims to explore the mechanisms of the inhibitory effect of kaempferol on the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer (GC) cells through network pharmacology prediction and experimental verification. It identifies core targets via PPI network analysis and finds that kaempferol binds to these targets well. experiments showed that kaempferol could inhibit the proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion of GC cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Although angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) has shown promise in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), the treatment effect in HFrEF patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing dialysis is uncertain. This study aimed to examine the real-world effects of ARNI vs. angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEI/ARB) in this subpopulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Before 2019, the Minimum Data Set (MDS) and Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) had incongruent response categories for rating cognitive impairment and activities of daily living (ADLs), hindering direct comparisons between nursing facilities and home health. We devised rule-based algorithms to compare cognitive impairment and ADL limitations between these 2 care settings among people with Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (ADRD).
Design: A retrospective cohort study.
Background: This study quantifies the longitudinal economic burden for a wide spectrum of incident complications, metabolic syndrome (MS)-related risk factors, and comorbidities in patients with MS.
Methods: This retrospective study utilized linked data from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey and the 2012-2021 National Health Insurance Research Database to identify MS individuals and their characteristics. The incidence rate of each complication was calculated as the number of complication events in the study period divided by the total person-years during follow-up.
Objective: To adapt risk prediction equations for myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and heart failure (HF) among patients with type 2 diabetes in real-world settings using cross-institutional electronic health records (EHRs) in Taiwan.
Methods: The EHRs from two medical centers, National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH; 11,740 patients) and National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH; 20,313 patients), were analyzed using the common data model approach. Risk equations for MI, stroke, and HF from UKPDS-OM2, RECODe, and CHIME models were adapted for external validation and recalibration.
Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors, and chemotherapy is the main treatment for advanced gastric cancer. However, chemotherapy resistance leads to treatment failure and poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major challenge that needs to be overcome in chemotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To assess the association of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) versus long-acting insulins (LAIs), which are the two commonly prescribed injectable glucose-lowering agents (GLAs) for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) after the failure of multiple oral GLAs.
Methods: We emulated a target trial using the nationwide data of a Taiwanese cohort with T2D. Incident new users of GLP-1RAs and LAIs during 2013-2018 were identified, and propensity score (PS) matching was applied to ensure between-group comparability in baseline patient characteristics.
This study was designed to evaluate the prognosis and pharmacological therapy sensitivity of epithelial mesenchymal transition-related genes (EMTRGs) that obtained from the EMTome database in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using bioinformatical method. The expression status of EMTRGs were also investigated using the clinical information of HCC patients supported by TCGA database and the ICGC database to establish the TCGA cohort as the training set and the ICGC cohort as the validation set. Analyze the EMTRGs between HCC tissue and liver tissue in the TCGA cohort in the order of univariate COX regression, LASSO regression, and multivariate COX regression, and construct a risk model for EMTRGs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Effectiveness of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) versus long-acting insulins (LAIs) on preventing progressive chronic kidney outcomes is uncertain for type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients requiring intensive glycemic control. This study aimed to evaluate comparative effectiveness of GLP-1RA versus LAI therapies on progressive chronic kidney outcomes among patients having poor glycemic control and requiring these injectable glucose-lowering agents (GLAs).
Methods: 7279 propensity-score-matched pairs of newly stable GLP-1RA and LAI users in 2013-2018 were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database and followed until death or 12/31/2019 (intention-to-treat).
Tumor multidrug resistance (MDR) remains one of the most challenging barriers to successful cancer treatment. Several previous studies have suggested that high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) may be a promising therapeutic target for overcoming cancer drug resistance. Emerging evidence has indicated that HMGB1 functions as a 'double‑edged sword' that plays both pro‑ and anti‑tumor roles in the development and progression of multiple types of cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People living with HIV (PLWH) have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). As speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) has been used to detect subclinical myocardial abnormalities, this study aims to detect early cardiac impairment among Asian PLWH using STE and to investigate the associated risk factors.
Methods: We consecutively recruited asymptomatic PLWH without previous CVD from a medical center of Taiwan, and their cardiac function was evaluated by conventional echocardiogram and STE.
Aims: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) versus long-acting insulins (LAIs) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) using real-world data.
Methods: A Markov model was utilized to estimate healthcare costs (US$) and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) of receiving treatments over 10 years from the healthcare sector perspective. Model inputs were derived from the analyses of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database or published literature on Taiwanese T2D populations.
Importance: Older patients with hypertension receiving intensive systolic blood pressure control (110-130 mm Hg) have lower incidences of cardiovascular events than those receiving standard control (130-150 mm Hg). Nevertheless, the mortality reduction is insignificant, and intensive blood pressure management results in more medical costs from treatments and subsequent adverse events.
Objective: To examine the incremental lifetime outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of intensive vs standard blood pressure control in older patients with hypertension from the health care payer's perspective.
Background: Neoadjuvant therapy, which aims to achieve a pathological complete response (pCR) for better overall survival (OS) has several advantages for patients with early breast cancer (eBC) and subtypes of HER2-positive (HER2+) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, there has been no large-scale real-world investigation on the clinical outcomes associated with trastuzumab-based and platinum-based neoadjuvant treatments for patients with HER2+ and TNBC, respectively.
Material And Methods: Taiwan Cancer Registry and National Health Insurance Research Database were utilized in this study.
Background: Some sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors showed benefits on heart failure (HF), but different SGLT2/SGLT1 selectivity might influence the treatment effect. This study aimed to meta-analyze the treatment effects of SGLT2 inhibitors and the diversity of receptor selectivity for patients with and without HF.
Methods: Randomized controlled trials were searched in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane databases and ClinicalTrials.
A promise of cancer nanomedicine is the "targeted" delivery of therapeutic agents to tumors by the rational design of nanostructured materials. During the past several decades, a realization that in vitro and in vivo preclinical data are unreliable predictors of successful clinical translation has motivated a reexamination of this approach. Mathematical models of drug pharmacokinetics (PK) and biodistribution (BD) are essential tools for small-molecule drugs development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Increasing numbers of post hoc analyses have applied restricted mean survival time (RMST) analysis on the aggregated-level data from clinical trials to report treatment effects, but studies that use individual-level claims data are needed to determine the feasibility of RMST analysis for quantifying treatment effects among patients with type 2 diabetes in routine clinical settings.
Objectives: To apply RMST analysis for assessing sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT2i)-associated cardiovascular (CV) events and estimating heterogenous treatment effects (HTEs) on CV and kidney outcomes in routine clinical settings.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This comparative effectiveness study of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database examined 21 144 propensity score (PS)-matched pairs of patients with type 2 diabetes with SGLT2i and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor (DPP4i) treatment for assessing CV outcomes, and 19 951 PS-matched pairs of patients with type 2 diabetes with SGLT2i and DPP4i treatment for assessing kidney outcomes.
With the promising cardiovascular benefits in the STEP and SPRINT trials, the 2022 Taiwan's hypertension guidelines redefined the hypertension threshold as 130/80 mmHg and a universal blood-pressure target of <130/80 mmHg. This study's objective was to examine the cost-effectiveness of the intensive blood-pressure target for hypertensive patients using estimated lifetime medical costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALY) from the Taiwan national payer's perspective. We developed a lifetime Markov model comparing the intensive and conservative blood-pressure targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In biomedical and epidemiological studies, gene-environment (G-E) interactions play an important role in the etiology and progression of many complex diseases. In ultra-high-dimensional survival genomic data, two common approaches (marginal and joint models) are proposed to determine important interaction biomarkers. Most existing methods for detecting G-E interactions (marginal Cox model and marginal accelerated failure time model) are limited by a lack of robustness to contamination/outliers in response outcome and prediction biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To assess the national prevalence of and trends in achieving current guideline-recommended treatment goals and pharmacotherapies for primary and secondary prevention of stroke among U.S. adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: We conducted a model-based economic analysis of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) versus dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4is) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), with and without established cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), using 10-year real-world data.
Materials And Methods: A Markov model was utilized to estimate healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) over a 10-year simulation time horizon from a healthcare sector perspective, with both costs and QALYs discounted at 3% annually. Model inputs were derived from analyses of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database or published studies of Taiwanese populations.