Development of a Predictive Model for Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Older Patients with Cardiovascular Disease.

Background: Older patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) are highly susceptible to adverse drug reactions due to age-related physiological changes and the presence of multiple comorbidities, polypharmacy, and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs).

Objective: This study aimed to develop a predictive model to identify the use of PIMs in older patients with CVD.

Methods: Data from 2012 to 2021 from the Changhua Christian Hospital Clinical Research Database (CCHRD) and the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Research Database (KMUHRD) were analyzed.

Local Consolidative Therapy May Have Prominent Clinical Efficacy in Patients with -Mutant Advanced Lung Adenocarcinoma Treated with First-Line Afatinib.

Afatinib is an irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is utilized for the treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer that harbors mutations. No studies have evaluated the clinical efficacy of LCT in patients treated with first-line afatinib. In this study, we retrospectively enrolled patients with advanced lung adenocarcinomas harboring susceptible mutations who were diagnosed and treated with first-line afatinib in three hospitals.

Proton pump inhibitors reduce the survival of advanced lung cancer patients with therapy of gefitinib or erlotinib.

Gefitinib and erlotinib are the first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. However, co-administration of either drug with proton pump inhibitors (PPI) or histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RA) may reduce TKI's bioavailability. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of these drug-drug interactions.

Lower starting dose of afatinib for the treatment of metastatic lung adenocarcinoma harboring exon 21 and exon 19 mutations.

Background: Afatinib has shown favorable response rates (RRs) and longer progression free survival (PFS) in lung cancer patients harboring EGFR mutations compared with standard platinum-based chemotherapy. However, serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) limit the clinical application of afatinib.

Methods: We designed a retrospective study, enrolling all patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma who were diagnosed and treated with 30 or 40 mg daily afatinib as their initial treatment in three Kaohsiung Medical University-affiliated hospitals in Taiwan.

Association of bacterial genotypes and epidemiological features with treatment failure in hemodialysis patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.

Objectives: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in the hemodialysis (HD) population are epidemiologically classified as healthcare-associated infections. The data about the clinical impact and bacterial characteristics of hospital-onset (HO)- and community-onset (CO)-MRSA in HD patients are scarce. The current study analyzed the difference in the clinical and molecular characteristics of HO-MRSA and CO-MRSA.

Poorer prognosis in Taiwanese female ever smokers with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma who were readministered a tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Background: Readministering a second epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma with acquired resistance to an initial EGFR TKI is a common treatment strategy. However, the prognostic factors for the second EGFR TKI are still uncertain.

Patients And Methods: In this retrospective study, we enrolled patients with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed between June 2009 and October 2013 at two university-affiliated hospitals in Taiwan.

Acute pancreatitis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors.

Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitors are approved for use in monotherapy or in combination therapy for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus for <1 decade. However, numerous reports of DPP-4 inhibitors induced acute pancreatitis were made through the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System, and this led to a revision in the prescribing information for these drugs. Therefore, this study is designed to evaluate DPP-4 inhibitors induced acute pancreatitis via the spontaneous adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting system in a medical center.

Piperacillin-induced thrombocytopenia reversed by high-flux hemodialysis in an uremic patient.

Drug-induced thrombocytopenia in an infected patient often is overlooked. We present a 74-year-old uremic female with continuous renal replacement therapy developed severe thrombocytopenia during the treatment course of piperacillin/tazobactam. Platelet counts recovered rapidly after discontinuing piperacillin/tazobactam and receiving high-flux hemodialysis.

Pemetrexed as a possible cause of severe rhabdomyolysis in the treatment of lung cancer.

According to many published clinical trials, both haematological and non-haematological toxicities resulting from pemetrexed were relatively mild and therefore this drug is considered to be well tolerated. We came across a 60 y/o woman patient with stage IV adenocarcinoma, suffered from unexpected life threatening complication, rhabdomyolysis. Severe lower leg weakness and respiratory failure occurred on the day 3 after pemetrexed administration.