Publications by authors named "P-C Lai"

Background: Risk stratification is highly desirable in patients with uncomplicated Stanford type B aortic dissection but inadequately supported by evidence. We sought to validate externally a published prediction model for late adverse events (LAEs), consisting of 1 clinical (connective tissue disease) and 4 imaging variables: maximum aortic diameter, false lumen circumferential angle, false lumen outflow, and number of identifiable intercostal arteries.

Methods: We assembled a retrospective multicenter cohort (ROADMAP [Registry of Aortic Diseases to Model Adverse Events and Progression]) of 401 patients with uncomplicated Stanford type B aortic dissection presenting to 1 of 8 aortic centers between 2001 and 2013, followed until 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

: Three respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines have been recently made available for older adults. Understanding the principal characteristics of the first vaccine-takers can pave the way for a successful vaccination campaign. The objective of this study was to explore the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the first Italian users of an adjuvanted RSV vaccine and their attitudes towards RSV and vaccination.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Dual immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) using CTLA4 and PD-(L)1 inhibitors shows improved anti-tumor effectiveness and immune toxicity compared to PD-(L)1 inhibitors alone in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
  • Patients with mutations in STK11 and/or KEAP1 genes benefit more from the combination treatment compared to those receiving only PD-(L)1 inhibitors, as shown in the POSEIDON trial.
  • The loss of KEAP1 serves as a strong predictor for the success of dual ICB, as it leads to a more favorable outcome by changing the tumor's immune environment to better engage CD4 and CD8 T cells for anti-tumor activity. *
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Immune dysregulation and SARS-CoV-2 plasma viremia have been implicated in fatal COVID-19 disease. However, how these two factors interact to shape disease outcomes is unclear.

Methods: We carried out viral and immunological phenotyping on a prospective cohort of 280 patients with COVID-19 presenting to acute care hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts and Genoa, Italy between June 1, 2020 and February 8, 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lushan Yunwu tea quality is limited by soil acidity and sterility. This article examined a 3-year localization experiment at 1100 m altitude to demonstrate the sustainable management of conditioners, calcium magnesium phosphate (P), rapeseed cake (C), and combination application (P + C) by one-time application on the soil-tea system in Mount Lushan. The study found that conditioners (P, C, P + C) reduced soil acidification and maintained a pH of 4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Through the substitution reaction between 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and sodium lignosulfonate (LS), a novel phosphorus-containing sodium lignosulfonate (DAL) was successfully synthesized via the solvothermal method and used as a multifunctional flame retardant to prepare a novel silicone-acrylic emulsion (SAE) composite Si-P-C coating. The structure of DAL was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (solid-state C NMR and P NMR). The results demonstrated that incorporating an appropriate dosage of DAL (0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare the effectiveness and tolerability of two treatments for chronic migraine: CGRP monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and onabotulinumtoxinA.
  • It included 649 chronic migraine patients and found that CGRP mAbs reduced monthly migraine days more significantly than onabotulinumtoxinA and had a higher responder rate.
  • Both treatments were well-tolerated, with fewer adverse events reported for CGRP mAbs, but further studies are needed to confirm these results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/aim: Chemotherapy drugs for leukemia, such as 5-azacytidine (Aza), have often various adverse effects. Hesperetin (Hes), a naturally occurring compound, is a potential adjuvant agent for anticancer therapy. This study aimed to investigate the effect of an Aza-Hes combination on acute leukemia cell lines, which elucidates the role of combination treatment in leukemia progression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive death of dopamine (DA) neurons and the pathological accumulation of α-synuclein (α-syn) fibrils. In our previous study, simulated PHB2 phosphorylation was utilized to clarify the regulatory role of c-Abl in PHB2-mediated mitophagy in PD models. In this investigation, we employed an independently patented PHB2Y121 phosphorylated antibody in the PD model to further verify that the c-Abl inhibitor STI571 can impede PHB2Y121 phosphorylation, decrease the formation of α-Syn polymers, and improve autophagic levels.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Exercise training has been shown to improve heart rehabilitation, potentially lowering the risks of heart disease, and the microRNA miR-574-3p is associated with heart health and remodeling, though its role in exercise benefits is not well understood.
  • - In this study, mice underwent a transverse aortic coarctation surgery followed by 4 weeks of swimming, which led to significant improvements in heart structure and function, including reduced cardiac hypertrophy and inflammation.
  • - The results indicated that aerobic exercise increased miR-574-3p levels, and when this microRNA was knocked down, the heart-protective effects of exercise were diminished, suggesting that miR-574-3p plays a crucial role in the cardiopro
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To determine the location and intensity of the corneal pigmented arc in orthokeratology (ortho-k)-treated children and its relationship with annual axial length (AL) change using Pentacam.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study enrolled children aged 9 to 15 years who had been followed up for at least one year after ortho-k treatment for myopia control. A Pentacam was used to determine the location and intensity of pigmented arc after lens wear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The present study aimed to compare sex differences in the clinical manifestations related to dependence behaviors in medication-overuse headache (MOH).

Methods: Consecutive patients with newly diagnosed chronic migraine (CM) with and without MOH based on the Third Edition of International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) were enrolled prospectively from the headache clinic of a tertiary medical center. Demographics and clinical profiles were collected by using a questionnaire, which included current use of tobacco, alcohol, and caffeinated beverages, the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ), the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS), the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hepatic impairment (HI) moderately (<5-fold) affects the systemic exposure (i.e., area under the plasma concentration-time curve [AUC]) of drugs that are substrates of the hepatic sinusoidal organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) transporters and are excreted unchanged in the bile and/or urine.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Whole-exome sequencing (WES) is an effective tool for diagnosis in patients who remain undiagnosed despite a comprehensive clinical work-up. While WES is being used increasingly in pediatrics and oncology, it remains underutilized in non-oncological adult medicine, including in patients with liver disease, in part based on the faulty premise that adults are unlikely to harbor rare genetic variants with large effect size. Here, we aim to assess the burden of rare genetic variants underlying liver disease in adults at two major tertiary referral academic medical centers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, populated with drug-metabolizing enzyme and transporter (DMET) abundance, can be used to predict the impact of hepatic impairment (HI) on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of drugs. To increase confidence in the predictive power of such models, they must be validated by comparing the predicted and observed PK of drugs in HI obtained by phenotyping (or probe drug) studies. Therefore, we first predicted the effect of all stages of HI (mild to severe) on the PK of drugs primarily metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A enzymes using the default HI module of Simcyp Version 21, populated with hepatic and intestinal CYP3A abundance data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Adequate image registration of MRI scans is crucial in MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, but geometric distortions pose a significant challenge.
  • * This study systematically evaluated multiple deformable image registration (DIR) methods, comparing commercial and open-source techniques, to align diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and T2-weighted (T2W) MRI images from the same session in 20 HNC patients.
  • * Results showed that ADMIRE and Elastix 23 methods outperformed others, significantly enhancing alignment accuracy for radiotherapy structures compared to non-registered images, with ADMIRE being notably faster and more effective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objectives: While somatic mutations have been well-studied in cancer, their roles in other complex traits are much less understood. Our goal is to identify somatic variants that may contribute to the formation of saccular cerebral aneurysms.

Methods: We performed whole-exome sequencing on aneurysm tissues and paired peripheral blood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To evaluate the neurodevelopmental outcomes in premature infants who received intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections to treat retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: This study was conducted using the database from the Taiwan Premature Infant Follow-up Network.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Although the 9-minute mean withdrawal time (m-WT) is often reported to be associated with the optimal adenoma detection rate (ADR), no randomized trials of screening colonoscopy have confirmed the impact of a 9-minute m-WT on adenoma miss rate (AMR) and ADR.

Methods: A multicenter tandem trial was conducted in 11 centers. Seven hundred thirty-three asymptomatic participants were randomized to receive segmental tandem screening colonoscopy with a 9-minute withdrawal, followed by a 6-minute withdrawal (9-minute-first group, 9MF, n = 366) or vice versa (6-minute-first group, 6MF, n = 367).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To evaluate the impact of antiplatelet therapy (APT)on the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and mortality following its treatment.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Databases. Two HCC clinical settings were explored: (i) incidence, and (ii) death after any HCC treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Predicting transporter-based drug clearance (CL) and tissue concentrations (TC) in humans is important to reduce the risk of failure during drug development. In addition, when transporters are present at the tissue:blood interface (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recent evidence has shown bilateral transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (Bi-TENS) combined with task-oriented training (TOT) to be superior to unilateral transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (Uni-TENS)+TOT in improving lower limb motor functioning following stroke. However, no research explored the effect of Bi-TENS+TOT in improving upper limb motor recovery. This study aimed to compare Bi-TENS+TOT with Uni-TENS+TOT, Placebo transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (Placebo-TENS)+TOT, and no treatment (Control) groups in upper limb motor recovery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To analyze the outcomes of using an internal limiting membrane (ILM) flap and the conventional ILM peel technique for small- or medium-sized full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) repair.

Design: Retrospective, interventional case series.

Methods: Eyes with an FTMH ≤400 µm that underwent vitrectomy with a single-layer inverted ILM flap (flap group, 55 eyes) or an ILM peel (peel group, 62 eyes) were enrolled.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present study investigated the impact of carnosic acid (CA) from rosemary on the levodopa (-dopa)-induced dyskinesia (LID) in rats treated with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). To establish the model of LID, 6-OHDA-lesioned rats were injected intraperitoneally with 30 mg/kg -dopa once a day for 36 days. Rats were daily administrated with 3 or 15 mg/kg CA by oral intubation prior to -dopa injection for 4 days.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To determine the relationship of intraocular pressure (IOP) control with subsequent retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning in patients with primary angle closure disease (PACD).

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: The study monitored 517 treated PACD eyes from 280 Chinese patients at least 24 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF