Intensive Care Unit Transfer in Patients With Deep Neck Infections.

Deep neck infection (DNI) involves the deep neck spaces and may lead to airway compromise. An intensive care unit (ICU) is a specialized unit of the hospital that provides intensive care. ICU care is required for patients with severe DNI, although the risk factors for need of ICU care in patients with DNI have not been investigated.

Alternating Hot-Cold Water Immersion Facilitates Motor Function Recovery in the Paretic Upper Limb After Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of alternating hot-cold water immersion (AHCWI) in patients with acute stroke.

Design: A single-blind pilot randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of a medical center.

High-Intensity Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Is Associated with Lower Risk of Pressure Ulcer Development in Patients with Stroke: Real-World Evidence from a Nationwide, Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background and Objectives: Multiple factors are associated with pressure ulcer (PU) development, including limited mobility following stroke. We performed a nationwide cohort study to investigate the impact of rehabilitation intensity on the incidence of post-stroke PU. Materials and Methods: Data of patients diagnosed with stroke between 2000 and 2012 were collected from the 2000 Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (Taiwan).

Simultaneous determination of areca nut- and tobacco-specific alkaloids in saliva by LC-MS/MS: Distribution and transformation of alkaloids in oral cavity.

Areca nut and tobacco are frequently used in combination. Cigarette smoking and betel quid (BQ) chewing habits impose greater oral cancer risk than either habit alone. Saliva is a better noninvasive diagnostic material as it is in direct contact with oral mucosa and cancerous lesions.

Establishment of disaster medical assistance team standards and evaluation of the teams' disaster preparedness: An experience from Taiwan.

Background/purpose: Taiwan set up disaster medical assistance teams (DMATs) after the Chi-Chi earthquake, but these teams lack unified standards.

Methods: This study was divided into two phases. Phase I was a Delphi study conducted in 2019 with 26 experts who were invited to establish Taiwan's DMAT standards by modifying the World Health Organization Emergency Medical Team (WHO EMT) type I fixed standards.

Risk of Incident Stroke among Vegetarians Compared to Nonvegetarians: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.

Vegetarian dietary patterns provide health benefits for cardiovascular health; however, the studies examining the association of vegetarian diets with stroke incidence showed inconsistent findings. We systematically evaluated the risk of incident stroke among vegetarians (diets excluding meat, poultry, fish, and seafood) compared among nonvegetarians. A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science was performed until 20 May 2021.

A 36-Hour Unplugged Full-Scale Exercise: Closing the Gaps in Interagency Collaboration between the Disaster Medical Assistance Team and Urban Search and Rescue Team in Disaster Preparedness in Taiwan.

Introduction: Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) and urban search and rescue team (USAR) need to cooperate seamlessly to save lives in disasters, but related research is limited.

Objectives: To estimate the disaster preparedness of the DMAT and the barriers affecting interagency cooperation between the DMAT and the USAR team.

Methods: This was an observational study of a full-scale exercise conducted in Taiwan from November 16 to 18, 2018.

Spinal cord stimulation for spinal cord injury patients with paralysis: To regain walking and dignity.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) usually leads to disconnection between traversing neuronal pathway. The impairment of neural circuitry and its ascending and descending pathway usually leave severe SCI patients with both motor disability and loss of sensory function. In addition to poor quality of life, SCI patients not only have disabling respiratory function, urinary retention, impaired sexual function, autonomic dysregulation but also medical refractory neuropathic pain in the long term.

Printing a patient-specific instrument guide for skull osteoma management.

Background: To surgically remove osteoma and to keep an optimal cosmetic profile would be very challenging. To solve the difficulty, we utilized the three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies in generating a patient-specific instrument guide (PSIG) for the safe removal of a skull bone tumor.

Methods: The preoperational brain computed tomography (CT) provided the digital imaging with thin slices, and then images were reconstructed into a 3D skull model.

EXPath 2.0: An Updated Database for Integrating High-Throughput Gene Expression Data with Biological Pathways.

Co-expressed genes tend to have regulatory relationships and participate in similar biological processes. Construction of gene correlation networks from microarray or RNA-seq expression data has been widely applied to study transcriptional regulatory mechanisms and metabolic pathways under specific conditions. Furthermore, since transcription factors (TFs) are critical regulators of gene expression, it is worth investigating TFs on the promoters of co-expressed genes.

PlantPAN3.0: a new and updated resource for reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks from ChIP-seq experiments in plants.

The Plant Promoter Analysis Navigator (PlantPAN; http://PlantPAN.itps.ncku.

Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Intracerebral Hemorrhagic Rats after Alcohol Consumption.

Background: Alcoholism is one of the risk factors for cerebrovascular diseases. Our previous study demonstrated that acute alcohol intoxication enhances brain injury and neurological impairment in rats suffering from intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We plan to investigate the effect of chronic alcohol consumption (CAC) in rats with ICH by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Printing a 3-dimensional, Patient-specific Splint for Wound Immobilization: A Case Demonstration.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology can generate objects in almost any shape and geometry. This technique also has clinical applications, such as the fabrication of specific devices based on a patient's anatomy. A demonstration study is presented of a 54-year-old man who needed a thermoplastic splint to limit arm movement while a dehisced left shoulder wound healed.

Delayed formation of hematomas with ethanol preconditioning in experimental intracerebral hemorrhage rats.

Objective: Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 10%-15% of all strokes and causes high mortality and morbidity. In the previous study, we demonstrated that ethanol could aggravate the severity of brain injury after ICH by increasing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. In this study, we further investigate the acute effects of ethanol on brain injury within 24 h after ICH.

microRPM: a microRNA prediction model based only on plant small RNA sequencing data.

Motivation: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding small RNAs (of about 22 nucleotides), which play an important role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression via either mRNA cleavage or translation inhibition. Several machine learning-based approaches have been developed to identify novel miRNAs from next generation sequencing (NGS) data. Typically, precursor/genomic sequences are required as references for most methods.

Thiazide diuretics and the risk of hip fracture after stroke: a population-based propensity-matched cohort study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between thiazide use and the risk of hip fracture after stroke.

Setting: A population-based, propensity-matched cohort study was conducted on the basis of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.

Participants: Patients with newly diagnosed ischaemic stroke between 2000 and 2011 were included.

Collagenase-Induced Rat Intra-Striatal Hemorrhage Mimicking Severe Human Intra-Striatal Hemorrhage.

Basal ganglia hemorrhage accounts for approximately 50% of all hemorrhagic strokes. A good rat model that produces severe intrastriatal hemorrhage (ISH) mimicking human severe ISH is lacking. The present study compared the intra-striatal injection of 0.

Post-ischemic stroke rehabilitation is associated with a higher risk of fractures in older women: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Rehabilitation can improve physical activity after stroke. However, patients may be more prone to falls and fractures because of balance and gait deficits. Few reports have studied the relationship between rehabilitation and subsequent fractures after ischemic stroke.

EXPath tool-a system for comprehensively analyzing regulatory pathways and coexpression networks from high-throughput transcriptome data.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) has become the mainstream approach for monitoring gene expression levels in parallel with various experimental treatments. Unfortunately, there is no systematical webserver to comprehensively perform further analysis based on the huge amount of preliminary data that is obtained after finishing the process of gene annotation. Therefore, a user-friendly and effective system is required to mine important genes and regulatory pathways under specific conditions from high-throughput transcriptome data.

A 3D mathematical model to predict spinal joint and hip joint force for trans-tibial amputees with different SACH foot pylon adjustments.

A solid-ankle cushioned heel (SACH) foot is a non-joint foot without natural ankle function. Trans-tibial amputees may occur toe scuffing in the late swing phase due to a lack of active dorsiflexion. To address this problem, clinical guidelines suggests shortening the pylon to produce a smooth gait.

Sustained-release versus immediate-release glipizide for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in chinese patients: A randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group, 12-week clinical study.

Background: Few data exist that have compared sulfonylurea formulations in differing ethnic populations. Most studies of sulfonylureas have been performed in white patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and tolerability of a sustained-release glipizide (GSR) formulation with those of immediate-release glipizide (GIR) in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.