Comparison of the diagnostic efficacy between virtual portal pressure gradient and hepatic venous pressure gradient in patients with cirrhotic portal hypertension.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of virtual portal pressure gradient (vPPG) and its associated hemodynamic parameters of 3-dimensional (3D) model in patients with cirrhosis.

Methods: Seventy cirrhotic patients who underwent both hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement and vPPG calculation were prospectively collected. The ideal-state model (ISM; n = 44) was defined by sinusoidal PH without hepatic vein shunt or portal vein thrombosis, whereas those not conforming to the criteria were classified as non-ISM (n = 26).

Humeral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients on peritoneal dialysis.

Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019. Little is known about immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccination in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Method: We prospectively enrolled 306 PD patients receiving two doses of vaccines (ChAdOx1-S: 283, mRNA-1273: 23) from July 2021 at a medical center.

Fat mass as an important predictor of persistent hypertension in patients with primary aldosteronism after adrenalectomy.

Aldosterone excess is present in obesity and is associated with involvement in the pathogenesis of obesity. We evaluate the impact of body obesity as measured by body composition monitor (BCM) on clinical outcomes in patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism (uPA) after adrenalectomy. The BCM device was used to assess body composition before and after adrenalectomy.

A deep learning-based precision volume calculation approach for kidney and tumor segmentation on computed tomography images.

Previously, doctors interpreted computed tomography (CT) images based on their experience in diagnosing kidney diseases. However, with the rapid increase in CT images, such interpretations were required considerable time and effort, producing inconsistent results. Several novel neural network models were proposed to automatically identify kidney or tumor areas in CT images for solving this problem.

A deep learning-based precision and automatic kidney segmentation system using efficient feature pyramid networks in computed tomography images.

This paper proposes an encoder-decoder architecture for kidney segmentation. A hyperparameter optimization process is implemented, including the development of a model architecture, selecting a windowing method and a loss function, and data augmentation. The model consists of EfficientNet-B5 as the encoder and a feature pyramid network as the decoder that yields the best performance with a Dice score of 0.

Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker Associated With Less Outcome Risk in Patients With Acute Kidney Disease.

The aim of this study was to explore the respective use of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEis) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on the outcomes of patients who could be weaned from dialysis-requiring acute kidney injury (AKI-D). This case-control study enrolled 41,731 patients who were weaned from AKI-D for at least 7 days from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Administration. We further grouped AKI-D patients according to ACEi and ARB use to evaluate subsequent risks of all-cause mortality and re-dialysis.

Long-term mortality and cardiovascular events in patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism after targeted treatments.

Objective: Long-term outcomes (especially mortality and/or major cardiovascular events (MACE)) of the unilateral primary aldosteronism (uPA) patients who underwent medical or surgery-targeted treatment, relative to those with essential hypertension (EH), have been scarcely reported.

Design And Settings: Using the prospectively designed observational Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation cohort, we identified 858 uPA cases among 1220 primary aldosteronism patients and another 1210 EH controls.

Exposures: Operated uPA patients were grouped via their 1-year post-therapy statuses.

Nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for acute kidney injury - 2020 consensus of the Taiwan AKI-task force.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common syndrome that has a significant impact on prognosis in various clinical settings. To evaluate whether new evidence supports changing the current definition/classification/staging systems for AKI suggested by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) 2012 Clinical Practice Guideline, the Taiwan AKI-TASK Force, composed of 64 experts in various disciplines, systematically reviewed the literature and proposed recommendations about the current nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for AKI. The Taiwan Acute Kidney Injury (TW-AKI) Consensus 2020 was established following the principles of evidence-based medicine to investigate topics covered in AKI guidelines.

Proteomic Analysis of Generative and Vegetative Nuclei Reveals Molecular Characteristics of Pollen Cell Differentiation in .

In plants, the cell fates of a vegetative cell (VC) and generative cell (GC) are determined after the asymmetric division of the haploid microspore. The VC exits the cell cycle and grows a pollen tube, while the GC undergoes further mitosis to produce two sperm cells for double fertilization. However, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying their fate differentiation remains limited.

Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers but Not Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors Are Associated With a Reduced Risk of Acute Kidney Injury After Major Surgery.

We investigated the respective effects of preoperative angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on the incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) and mortality. In this nested case-control study, we enrolled 20,276 patients who received major surgery. We collected their baseline demographic data, comorbidities and prescribed medication, the outcomes of postoperative AKI and mortality.

Presence of Subclinical Hypercortisolism in Clinical Aldosterone-Producing Adenomas Predicts Lower Clinical Success.

The clinical characteristics and outcomes in patients with clinical aldosterone-producing adenomas harboring mutations with or without subclinical hypercortisolism remain unclear. This prospective study is aimed at determining factors associated with subclinical hypercortisolism in patients with clinical aldosterone-producing adenomas. Totally, 82 patients were recruited from November 2016 to March 2018 and underwent unilateral laparoscopic adrenalectomy with at least a 12-month follow-up postoperatively.

Familial Aggregation and Heritability of Aldosteronism with Cardiovascular Events.

Context: To date, the effect of positive family history as a risk factor of primary aldosteronism (PA) is largely unknown. Studies have failed to distinguish the heritability of PA as well as the associations between positive family history of PA and clinical outcomes.

Objectives: We quantified the prevalence, the extent of familial aggregation, the heritability of PA among family members of patients with PA, and the association between positive PA family history and major cardiovascular events (MACE).

Plasma Aldosterone After Seated Saline Infusion Test Outperforms Captopril Test at Predicting Clinical Outcomes After Adrenalectomy for Primary Aldosteronism.

Objective: The saline infusion test (SIT) and the captopril test (CT) are widely used as confirmatory tests for primary aldosteronism (PA). We hypothesized that post-SIT and post-CT plasma aldosterone concentrations (PAC) indicate the severity of aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) and might predict clinical outcome.

Methods: We recruited 216 patients with APA in the Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation (TAIPAI) registry who received both seated SIT and CT as confirmatory tests.

Adrenalectomy Improves the Long-Term Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease and Mortality of Primary Aldosteronism.

Objective: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a common cause of secondary hypertension, and the long-term effect of excess aldosterone on kidney function is unknown.

Patients And Methods: We used a longitudinal population database from the Taiwan National Health Insurance system and applied a validated algorithm to identify patients with PA diagnosed between 1997 and 2009.

Results: There were 2699 patients with PA recruited, of whom 761 patients with an aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) were identified.

Author Correction: Draft genomic and transcriptome resources for marine chelicerate Tachypleus tridentatus.

In the original version of this Data Descriptor the word "Gulf" was incorrectly spelled in the affiliation "Ocean College, Beibu Gulf University, Qinzhou, 535011, Guangxi, China". This has now been corrected in both the HTML and PDF versions.

Draft genomic and transcriptome resources for marine chelicerate Tachypleus tridentatus.

Chinese horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus tridentatus), ancient marine arthropods dating back to the mid-Palaeozoic Era, have provided valuable resources for the detection of bacterial or fungal contamination. However, excessive exploitation for the amoebocyte lysate of Tachypleus has dramatically decreased the population of the Chinese horseshoe crabs. Thus, we present sequencing, assembly and annotation of T.

Higher Screening Aldosterone to Renin Ratio in Primary Aldosteronism Patients with Diabetes Mellitus.

Accumulated evidence has shown that low renin hypertension is common in patients with diabetic nephropathy. However, the performance of aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) in primary aldosteronism (PA) patients with diabetes has not been well validated. Here, we report the performance of screening ARR in PA patients with diabetes.

Effects of Statin Use in Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease Patients.

Although statin treatment is recommended for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages I⁻IV, its potential benefits have not been reported in advanced CKD patients. Non-diabetic patients with advanced CKD (pre-dialysis patients, estimated glomerular filtration rate <15 mL/min/1.73 m²) were enrolled from a National Health Insurance Research Database with a population of 23 million.

New-Onset Diabetes After Acute Kidney Injury Requiring Dialysis.

Objective: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is related to a high prevalence of insulin resistance. However, information is lacking on the sequelae of further metabolic change among AKI requiring dialysis in patients who could be weaned off dialysis (acute kidney disease [AKD]).

Research Design And Methods: Using the National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2010, with the exclusion of those with diabetes at the start, we identified 3,307 subjects with AKD and 9,921 matched control subjects from 963,037 hospitalized patients for the comparison of the outcomes, including new-onset diabetes and all-cause mortality.

miRNA-203 Modulates Aldosterone Levels and Cell Proliferation by Targeting Wnt5a in Aldosterone-Producing Adenomas.

Context: The aberrant expression or alternation of miRNA in the pathogenesis of aldosterone-producing adenomas (APAs) is still largely unknown.

Objective: We investigated the role of miRNA-203 (screened from miRNA microarrays) and elucidated its effects on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway regarding aldosterone production and cell proliferation in APAs.

Methods: miR-203 expression was upregulated or downregulated by transfecting miR-203 mimics or inhibitors into primary APA cells, the human adrenocortical cell line HAC15, and C57BL/6 mice.

Potential target-organ protection of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist in acute kidney disease.

Objectives: Acute kidney disease (AKD), the transition of acute kidney injury to chronic kidney disease, has major clinical significance. Whether mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist will afford target organ protection during this critical stage remains ill-defined.

Methods: Using a population-based cohort database from January 1999 to July 2011, we identified 7252 AKD patients with hypertension, of whom 2255 were treated with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (user) and 4997 were treated by other antihypertensive medication (nonuser).

Update of pathophysiology and management of diabetic kidney disease.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus and the leading cause of end-stage renal disease in the world. The most characteristic marker of DKD is albuminuria, which is associated with renal disease progression and cardiovascular events. Renal hemodynamics changes, oxidative stress, inflammation, hypoxia and overactive renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) are involved in the pathogenesis of DKD, and renal fibrosis plays the key role.

The therapeutic effect of bromocriptine in combination with spironolactone in patients with primary aldosteronism: a hypothesis generating pilot study.

Background: Dopamine D2-like receptors are attenuated in aldosterone producing adenoma, lead to overproduction of aldosterone in affected patients, and thus reported to serve as a potential treatment target for primary aldosteronism. The D2 dopamine receptor agonist bromocriptine has been used clinically for reducing tumor mass of pituitary adenomas of lactotroph origin. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of adding bromocriptine to spironolactone in the biochemical control of primary aldosteronism.

The prevalence of CTNNB1 mutations in primary aldosteronism and consequences for clinical outcomes.

Constitutive activation of the Wnt pathway/β-catenin signaling may be important in aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA). However, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the prevalence and clinical outcomes after adrenalectomy in APA patients harboring CTNNB1 mutations. The molecular expression of CYP11B2 and gonadal receptors in adenomas were also explored.