Publications by authors named "Ta Wei Yang"

The early identification of an individual's dementia risk is crucial for disease prevention and the design of insurance products in an aging society. This study aims to accurately predict the future incidence risk of dementia in individuals by leveraging the advantages of neural networks. This is, however, complicated by the high dimensionality and sparsity of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes when utilizing data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance, which includes individual profiles and medical records.

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Background: Recessive GJB2 variants, the most common genetic cause of hearing loss, may contribute to progressive sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The aim of this study is to build a realistic predictive model for GJB2-related SNHL using machine learning to enable personalized medical planning for timely intervention.

Method: Patients with SNHL with confirmed biallelic GJB2 variants in a nationwide cohort between 2005 and 2022 were included.

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  • This study investigated the differences in outcomes between low-dose and standard-dose alteplase in patients with acute ischemic stroke, focusing on bridging therapy for large vessel occlusion.
  • The analysis included five studies with 408 patients and measured outcomes like functional independence, successful recanalization, intracerebral hemorrhage, and mortality.
  • Results showed that low-dose alteplase did not improve 90-day functional independence compared to standard-dose but had similar rates of successful recanalization, sICH, and mortality, though these results were not statistically significant.
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  • Foreign body (FB) ingestion is a common issue that can be hard to diagnose in the upper digestive tract, often using conventional X-rays as the first imaging tool.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 studies (involving 4,809 patients) evaluated the effectiveness of X-rays in spotting these FBs, revealing a pooled sensitivity of 0.58 (indicating many FBs may go undetected) and a specificity of 0.94 (suggesting if X-rays are negative, there’s a high chance FBs aren’t present).
  • The study concludes that due to the low sensitivity of X-rays, they shouldn't be relied upon to rule out FBs in at-risk patients, and suggests further imaging
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  • Scaphoid fractures are the most frequently occurring wrist fractures, but their diagnosis can be tricky, prompting interest in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) as a potential diagnostic tool.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate CBCT's effectiveness in diagnosing these fractures, incorporating data from five databases until March 2020.
  • The analysis found that CBCT demonstrated high sensitivity (0.88) and specificity (0.99), indicating it is an excellent diagnostic method; however, the evidence quality is low and more extensive studies are needed for confirmation.
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BACKGROUND Torsion of an intra-abdominal lipoma is rarely the cause of acute abdominal pain. Most of the previously reported cases of intra-abdominal lipoma torsion originated in the mesentery or omentum. However, an antimesenteric lipoma of the ileum with torsion has not been reported before.

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Although primary gastrointestinal lymphoma is a rare malignancy, it can cause an intussusception in adults and can be a clinically challenging condition to manage. Intussusception could progress to life-threatening complications if left untreated or could delay chemotherapy if inappropriate surgical management is used. We report a 31-year-old man diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus who was being treated with antiretroviral therapy.

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To evaluate the awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention education, and the acceptance of HIV testing among residents on Likoma Island, Malawi, a cross-sectional, population-based study of 579 residents aged > or =15 years from seven villages on Likoma Island was conducted during July and August 2007. Most of the subjects studied could correctly answer questions about their awareness of AIDS and knowledge of the ways to reduce HIV transmission. Moreover, the proportion of respondents (65.

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