Application of transcranial brain stimulation in dementia.

The number of patients with dementia grows rapidly as the global population ages, which posits tremendous health-care burden to the society. Only cholinesterase inhibitors and a N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist have been approved for treating patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and their clinical effects remained limited. Medical devices serve as an alternative therapeutic approach to modulating neural activities and enhancing cognitive function.

Diagnosis and outcomes of cachexia in Asia: Working Consensus Report from the Asian Working Group for Cachexia.

Chronic diseases often lead to metabolic disorders, causing anabolic resistance and increased energy consumption, which result in cachexia. Cachexia, in turn, can lead to major clinical consequences such as impaired quality of life, shortened life expectancy, and increased healthcare expenditure. Existing international diagnostic criteria for cachexia employ thresholds derived from Western populations, which may not apply to Asians due to differing body compositions.

Ultrasound reduces inflammation by modulating M1/M2 polarization of microglia through STAT1/STAT6/PPARγ signaling pathways.

Introduction: Activated microglia can be polarized to the pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype and the anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) can attenuate pro-inflammatory responses in activated microglia.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of LIPUS on M1/M2 polarization of microglial cells and the regulatory mechanisms associated with signaling pathways.

Risk of Subsequent Dementia or Alzheimer Disease Among Patients With Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Purpose: Alzheimer disease (AD), a common form of dementia, shares several clinical and pathologic features with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Epidemiologic reports on the association of AMD with subsequent dementia or AD are inconsistent.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Supportive care and symptom management in patients with advanced hematological malignancies: a literature review.

Background And Objective: Recent advances have led to cure or long-term disease control for patients with hematological malignancy (HM). Unfortunately, some of them still have poor prognoses and are often associated with significant symptom burden and poor quality of life for patients and families. These patients usually require supportive care including red blood cell and platelet transfusion, due to disease itself and the oncological treatment, apart from their symptom management.

A Dyadic Pain Management Program for Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Chronic Pain: Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Community-dwelling older adults suffer from chronic pain. Pain negatively affects their physical and psychosocial wellbeing. The majority of pain management education and programs focus only on older adults.

Experiences of Older Adults with Frailty Not Completing an Advance Directive: A Qualitative Study of ACP Conversations.

Advance care planning (ACP) facilitates individuals to proactively make decisions on their end-of-life care when they are mentally competent. It is highly relevant to older adults with frailty because they are more vulnerable to cognitive impairment, disabilities, and death. Despite devoting effort to promoting ACP among them, ACP and advance directive completion rates remain low.

Surveying Global Availability of Parkinson's Disease Treatment.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease with both motor and non-motor manifestations. Available treatment reduces symptoms and is critical for improving quality of life. Treatment options include drugs, device-aided therapies, and non-pharmacological therapies.

A Study of Seven Patients with Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) in Eastern Taiwan: A Case Series with Literature Review.

Purpose: CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy) is the most common cause of heritable vascular dementia. Recognizing the disease before the full-blown clinical features is challenging, so our case series high light clinical characteristics, screening tools and diagnostic process of the patients with CADASIL.

Case Report: Our case series reports neurocognitive features, neuroimaging, and exemplary pedigrees of seven patients with genetically confirmed CADASIL, in which six patients presented with dementia and the other one presented with migraine.

Psychometric properties of the dementia knowledge assessment scale-traditional Chinese among home care workers in Taiwan.

Background: The Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS) is a reliable and valid measurement of dementia knowledge for diverse allied health professionals but its traditional Chinese version has not been formally validated yet. The purpose of this study was to translate the DKAS from English to traditional Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties among home care workers in Taiwan.

Methods: The DKAS scale was translated into traditional Chinese through a forward translation and back translation process following the cross-cultural translation guideline.

Impact of enhanced haematology palliative care services in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukaemia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) suffer from a significant symptom burden and psychological, spiritual, social needs comparable to patients with solid metastatic malignancy. Referral to palliative care services for these haematological patients remains limited or often confined to the last days of life. We pioneered a palliative care (PC) program integrated with standard haematological care.

Effectiveness of a Peer-Led Pain Management Program in Relieving Chronic Pain and Enhancing Pain Self-Efficacy Among Older Adults: A Clustered Randomized Controlled Trial.

Chronic pain is common in nursing home residents, who may have difficulty seeking out pain management strategies. Peer support model show promise as a strategy for managing chronic conditions. This was a clustered randomized controlled trial.

Multimorbidity and Regional Volumes of the Default Mode Network in Brain Aging.

Introduction: The default mode network (DMN) is selectively vulnerable in brain aging. Little is known about the effect of multimorbidity as a whole onto the brain structural integrity.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between multimorbidity and the structural integrity of DMN.

Integrated palliative medicine in public oncology: a 10-year review.

Objectives: The rapid ageing population of Hong Kong has a high demand on oncology and palliative care (PC) service. This study was the first territory-wide assessment in Hong Kong to assess the palliative service coverage in patients with advanced cancer in the past decade.

Methods: Cancer deaths of all 43 public hospitals of Hong Kong were screened.

Integrative Palliative Care Service Model Improved End-of-Life Care and Overall Survival of Advanced Cancer Patients in Hong Kong: A Review of Ten-Year Territory-Wide Cohort.

Integrated palliative care in oncology service has been widely implemented in Hong Kong since 2006. The study aimed to review its impact on end-of-life outcomes and overall survival (OS) of cancer patients, as well as its utilization of health care resources in the past 10 years. Cancer deaths of all 43 public hospitals of Hong Kong were screened.

Epidemiology of atypical parkinsonian syndromes.

Atypical parkinsonism or atypical parkinsonian syndromes (APS) refer to a group of neurodegenerative disorders which mimic typical Parkinson's disease but poorly respond to levodopa treatment and deteriorate faster. APS are very rare and among them, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) are the three relatively better characterized entities. The prevalence estimates of PSP, MSA, or CBD are mostly <10/10, and the incidence estimates are around 1/10 person-year; both estimates remain stable over the past few decades.

The effects of a family-centered psychosocial-based nutrition intervention in patients with advanced cancer: the PiCNIC2 pilot randomised controlled trial.

Background: Malnutrition in advanced cancer patients is common but limited and inconclusive data exists on the effectiveness of nutrition interventions. Feasibility and acceptability of a novel family-based nutritional psychosocial intervention were established recently. The aims of this present study were to assess the feasibility of undertaking a randomised controlled trial of the latter intervention, to pilot test outcome measures and to explore preliminary outcomes.

PSORTdb 4.0: expanded and redesigned bacterial and archaeal protein subcellular localization database incorporating new secondary localizations.

Protein subcellular localization (SCL) is important for understanding protein function, genome annotation, and aids identification of potential cell surface diagnostic markers, drug targets, or vaccine components. PSORTdb comprises ePSORTdb, a manually curated database of experimentally verified protein SCLs, and cPSORTdb, a pre-computed database of PSORTb-predicted SCLs for NCBI's RefSeq deduced bacterial and archaeal proteomes. We now report PSORTdb 4.

The role of post-loss anxiety in the development of depressive symptoms and complicated grief symptoms: a longitudinal SEM study.

Background: Though grief, anxiety, and depression often co-occur, existing evidence mostly focus on any two of them at a time. Our study examined the relationships among the three clusters of symptoms.

Methods: A Chinese community sample of 101 bereaved individuals participated at T1.