The impact of active community-based survey on dementia detection ratio in Taiwan: A cohort study with historical control.

Background: Although early dementia detection is crucial to optimize the treatment outcomes and the management of associated symptoms, the published literature is scarce regarding the effectiveness of active screening protocols in enhancing dementia awareness and increasing the rate of early detection. The present study compared the detection ratio of an active community-based survey for dementia detection with the detection ratio of passive screening during routine clinical practice. Data for passive screening were obtained from the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, which was prospectively collected during the period from 2000 to 2003.

Impacts of treatments on recurrence and 28-year survival of ischemic stroke patients.

Aspirin and nicametate are well-established therapies for preventing recurrence and mortality from stroke in patients diagnosed as ischemic stroke. However, their respective effects on the recurrence, making allowance for the duration of recurrence and death without the occurrence of recurrence, and long-term survival have not been well elucidated. We aimed to evaluate long-term effect of two kinds of treatment on cerebrovascular death among ischemic stroke patients with or without the recurrence of stroke.

Low ambient temperature as the only meteorological risk factor of seizure occurrence: A multivariate study.

Background: The onset of epileptic seizures is influenced by weather, which is multifactorial. It is unknown which specific weather factors affect the occurrence of seizures.

Objectives: We studied the correlation between the onset of epileptic seizures and multiple weather parameters based on a population-based registry profile.

Gradient Relationship between Increased Mean Corpuscular Volume and Mortality Associated with Cerebral Ischemic Stroke and Ischemic Heart Disease: A Longitudinal Study on 66,294 Taiwanese.

The gradient relationship between mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mortality due to ischemic vascular disease has not been researched using a large-scale population-based study. This study evaluated the association between MCV and death attributable to cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and cardiovascular disease (CAD) in a large population- and community-based Taiwanese cohort. A longitudinal study with a 9-year follow-up was conducted to evaluate individuals aged 20 years or older who had participated in the Keelung (the northernmost city in Taiwan) community-based integrated screening (abbreviated as KCIS) program since September 1999.

Noninvasive detection of brainstem and spinal cord axonal degeneration in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mouse model.

Degeneration of motor neurons and their associated axons is a hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but reliable noninvasive lesion detection is lacking. In vivo diffusion tensor imaging was performed to evaluate neurodegeneration in the brainstem and cervical spinal cord of wild-type and G93A-SOD1 transgenic mice, an animal model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A statistically significant reduction in the apparent diffusion coefficient was observed in the motor nuclei VII and XII of G93A-SOD1 transgenic mice relative to wild-type mice.

Asymptomatic chronic hepatitis B virus infection does not increase the risk of diabetes mellitus: a ten-year observation.

Background And Aim: Chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been known to increase the risk of diabetes. Whether this association holds true for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains unclear. We thus conducted this study to investigate the influence of asymptomatic chronic HBV infection on the incidence of diabetes in a longitudinal cohort.

Further development in anatomically constrained MR image reconstruction: application to multimodal imaging of mouse stroke.

MR imaging can leverage a wide variety of intrinsic contrast mechanisms to provide detailed information regarding the anatomy, function, physiology, and metabolism of biological tissues. However, because of low sensitivity, many experiments that reveal higher-order structure and function have been limited due to inherent trade-offs between data acquisition time, signal-to-noise ratio, and resolution. This paper describes the further development of a statistical framework for MR image reconstruction which helps to mitigate these effects.

Location and size of infarct on functional outcome of noncardioembolic ischemic stroke.

Purpose: Studies regarding the effects of location and size of infarct on the functional outcome after stroke have yielded inconsistent results. This study aimed to investigate the relationships of neuroimage findings and longitudinal Barthel index (BI) scores in patients with first-ever ischemic stroke.

Method: The neuroimage findings of enrolled subjects were grouped by anatomical location.

Long-term mortality assessment using biological measures among elderly people. Ten-year follow-up of 597 healthy elderly subjects in Taiwan.

Background: Identifying biological measures that are predictive of mortality for elderly people aged over 65 years has not been fully elucidated in oriental studies.

Objective: The associations between these biological measures and long-term mortality were therefore investigated, and classifications for risk of death were developed among Taiwanese elderly people

Methods: Data used in this study were derived from a total of 597 apparently healthy subjects aged over 65 years identified from a nationwide survey that was conducted between 1989 and 1991 in Taiwan. Each participant received a physical examination and a wide range of biological measures.