The Alteration of Akkermansiaceae/Lachnospiraceae Ratio Is a Microbial Feature of Antibiotic-Induced Microbiota Remodeling.

Antibiotic treatment has been shown to cause gut microbiota dysbiosis. However, lacking critical features defining gut microbiota dysbiosis makes it challenging to prevent. By co-occurrence network analysis, we found that despite short antibiotic courses eliminating certain microbial taxa, the genus played the role of a high-centrality hub to maintain microbiota homeostasis.

Insulin Resistance Associated Disorders Pivoting Long-Term Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Decline During Entecavir Therapy.

Insulin resistance associated disorders (IRAD), including prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and fatty liver are significant risk factors of liver-related death in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). However, their relationship remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate how IRAD influence the kinetics of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in patients with CHB during long-term entecavir treatment.

Fecal microbiota transplantation for Clostridium difficile infection in Taiwan: Establishment and implementation.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains a major public health issue, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has become one of the standard therapies for recurrent or refractory CDI. When compared to medical therapies, such as metronidazole or vancomycin, FMT has a high rate of treatment response with acceptable safety and efficiency. Following promulgation of the amendments in September 2018 in Taiwan, FMT has been indicated for recurrent or refractory CDI.

Multifocal gastrointestinal varices: a rare manifestation of immunoglobulin G4-related disease.

Multifocal gastrointestinal varices are uncommon and often associated with liver cirrhosis. They consist of varices at the gastroesophageal region and the other sites (i.e.

Clinical utility of hepatitis B surface antigen kinetics in treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients during long-term entecavir therapy.

Aim: To investigate the utility of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) kinetics in chronic hepatitis B patients during long-term entecavir treatment.

Methods: This retrospective study included treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients who received at least 2 years of consecutive entecavir treatment. Patients were followed up at three to six month intervals with liver biochemistry, hepatitis B virus DNA, and abdominal sonography.

Planar-shape prototype generation using a tree-based random greedy algorithm.

A prototype is representative of a set of similar objects. This paper proposes an approach that formulates the problem of prototype generation as finding the mean from a given set of objects, where the prototype solution must satisfy certain constraints. These constraints describe the important perceptual features of the sample shapes that the proposed prototype must retain.