Publications by authors named "Kai-Chieh Hu"

The claim between hypertension and dementia needs more evidence due to limited data. We aim to examine the risk of dementia in patients with hypertension, and determine whether the use of antihypertensive medications (AHMs) could decrease the incidence of dementia diagnosed following the onset of hypertension. We employed the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2016 and performed a retrospective cohort study.

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The adaptation of egg-derived H7N9 candidate vaccine virus (CVV) in the mammalian cell line is an approach to developing a high-growth virus strain for the mass production of vaccine manufacturing. The adaptive mutations that occur in hemagglutinin (HA) are critical to the activity and potency of the vaccine virus. Previously, we identified a new mutation of A169S in the HA protein of an MDCK-adapted H7N9 vaccine virus (A/Anhui/2013, RG268); however, whether and how this mutation affects vaccine potency remain to be investigated.

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Background: Patients with diabetes tend to have cellulitis, foot infections, and amputation. We conducted this research to compare the risks of cellulitis, foot infections, and amputation between metformin no-use and use in persons with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Using propensity score matching, we identified 23 234 pairs of metformin nonusers and users from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, since January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2017.

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Previous research has focused on examining embarrassment in sensitive product purchase situations. Although embarrassment is a widespread emotion in consumption situations, few studies have explored its impact on service encounters, especially in the service failure context. This study examines how customers react to different service failures that cause embarrassment and explores whether self-serving bias exists when customers perceive higher embarrassment in service failure.

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Background: Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) receive traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for clinical needs unmet with psychotropic medications. However, the clinical characteristics of practices and outcomes of TCM in BD are not fully understood. This cohort study investigated the clinical characteristics, principal diagnoses, TCM interventions, and TCM prescriptions in patients with BD.

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Background: Marjolin ulcers (MUs) are malignant tumors arising from previously injured skin, including burn wounds, scars, chronic ulcers, and other chronic nonhealing inflammatory conditions. They have a potentially long latent period. The authors aimed to establish the prognostic factors for recurrence, metastasis, and disease-specific death related to MU.

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We conducted this study to determine the effect of metformin use on the risk of new-onset chronic urticaria in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). In total, 24,987 pairs of metformin users and nonusers were identified with propensity score-matching from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database from 1 January 2000, to 31 December 2017. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risks of chronic urticaria development, severe chronic urticaria, and hospitalization for chronic urticaria between metformin users and nonusers.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the safety and effectiveness of using umbilical cord-derived stem cells to help repair heart function in patients who experienced acute STEMI and had reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after revascularization.
  • Eight patients participated, with six completing the study, and there were no serious adverse events reported during the treatment or follow-up.
  • Results showed significant improvements in heart function, including increased LVEF and decreased NT-proBNP levels, suggesting the therapy could be promising, but further research is needed.
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Background: Hypertension (HTN) is the leading preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease worldwide. Patients with HTN are at higher risk for heart failure (HF). The currently available therapeutic approaches for HTN do not always optimally control blood pressure or are not suitable for hypertensive patients who have a higher number of comorbidities.

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Background and Objectives: Iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) could predispose the afflicted individuals to various infections and musculoskeletal disorders. This study attempted to investigate the association between IDA and septic arthritis (SA), a musculoskeletal disease. Materials and Methods: We investigated all the eligible subjects in the Taiwanese longitudinal health insurance database (LHID) between 2000 and 2012.

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Objectives: The prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and the number of patients undergoing dialysis in Taiwan are high. Since September 2009, the National Health Insurance has started to provide hospice care to patients with renal failure in Taiwan. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the use of hospice and nonhospice care in patients with ESRD on dialysis.

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Objective: We assessed the effect of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) on ischemic stroke prevention in the Asian population with type 2 diabetes (T2D) without established cardiovascular disease.

Research Design And Methods: This retrospective cohort study examined data obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database for the period from 1998 to 2018. The follow-up ended upon the occurrence of hospitalization for ischemic stroke.

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Background: Scabies is an infectious inflammatory skin disease. Cytokine-mediated inflammatory responses may be one of the pathological mechanisms underlying myocardial infarction.

Objective: We explore the association between scabies and subsequent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and all-cause mortality; Methods: We conducted a nationwide population-based study using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan.

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Previous studies have shown that metformin exhibits an anti-inflammatory effect and may decrease the risk of incidental diabetes. But the effect of metformin on incidental Sjögren's syndrome is unknown. The aim of the study was to examine the association between metformin exposure and Sjögren's syndrome in diabetic patients.

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Objectives: Studies concerning the risk of metabolic syndrome associated with night work have shown inconsistent findings, due to imprecise working time data and cross-sectional design. We used register-based daily working time data to examine the risk of incident metabolic syndrome associated with night shift work.

Methods: Working time data collected between 2010 and 2018 of 5775 Taiwanese hospital workers were used to identify night shift workers and to calculate the number of night shifts.

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Background: This study aimed to investigate the risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) among patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and its association with confounding comorbidities.

Methods: A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted using Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000). We established AMD and non-AMD cohorts from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2012 to determine the diagnosis of PD.

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Subconjunctival hemorrhage (SCH) is usually a benign ocular disorder that causes painless, redness under the conjunctiva. However, since SCH and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) share many vascular risk factors, studies have suggested that these two disorders may be significantly associated with each other, and evaluate the concomitance of ACS in patients with SCH. This population-based cohort study, enrolled 35,260 Taiwanese patients, and used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to identify patients with ACS and SCH.

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Three-finger toxins (3FTXs) are the most clinically relevant components in cobra (genus ) venoms. Administration of the antivenom is the recommended treatment for the snakebite envenomings, while the efficacy to cross-neutralize the different cobra species is typically limited, which is presumably due to intra-specific variation of the 3FTXs composition in cobra venoms. Targeting the clinically relevant venom components has been considered as an important factor for novel antivenom design.

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The purpose of this study was to explore the association between myasthenia gravis (MG) and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in an Asian population. The risk was analyzed in a cohort of 5528 patients with history of MG and 5528 individuals without MG using a hospitalization claim dataset. Both groups were matched by age, sex, index year and baseline comorbidities as an original analysis.

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Objective: This study aimed to investigate the risk of Alzheimer's disease among patients with age-related macular degeneration and its association with confounding comorbidities.

Method: This was a population-based, retrospective cohort study. By accessing data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, we identified 10,578 patients aged 50-100 years who were newly diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration between 2000 and 2012 and 10,578 non- age-related macular degeneration individuals.

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Background: This study aimed to investigate skin condition, quality of life, and psychological impact of breast cancer patients after radiation therapy. We designed and administered a questionnaire to breast cancer survivors for better understanding the skin sequelae after radiation therapy.

Methods: This study performed an anonymous online survey.

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Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is an aetiological agent responsible for seasonal epidemics of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, which causes considerable mortality among young children. Mucosal vaccines can efficiently induce secretory IgA at mucosal surfaces and thereby prevent or limit infection at the site of virus entry. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), which resemble bacterial DNA, can induce the innate immune response through activation of Toll-like receptor 9.

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Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is responsible for epidemics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in young children. To circumvent difficulties in obtaining clinical enterovirus isolates that might be contaminated with other viruses, a platform technology was developed to quickly generate vaccine virus strains based on the published enterovirus genomic sequences. A recombinant plasmid containing the full-length infectious cDNA clone of EV-A71 vaccine strain E59 was directly generated after transfecting the recombinant plasmid into Vero, RD or HEK293A cells, and phenotypic characteristics similar to the parental strain were observed.

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We have developed an efficient cell culture process to scale up the production of a recombinant adenovirus that expresses the membrane-trunked fusion protein of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; Ad-F0ΔTM). Adherent cells of human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293-derived cell, 293A, which supports the production of E1/E3-deleted Ad-F0ΔTM when cultured in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS), were adapted to suspension growth under serum-free medium. In doing so, we studied the immunogenicity of Ad-F0ΔTMsus, which propagated in a bioreactor that was cultured with serum-free suspension of 293A, in comparison with Ad-F0ΔTMadh, which was produced from parental 293A cells that were adherently cultured in medium containing FBS.

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