Publications by authors named "Wen-Chih Wu"

Article Synopsis
  • * By analyzing data from the Million Veteran Program and other cohorts, the study identifies 63 genetic loci linked to AMD, including 30 that were previously unknown, highlighting significant differences in risk among various ancestries.
  • * The findings reveal that certain genetic risk factors, like those found in the CFH locus, have varying effects based on ancestry, suggesting that targeted therapies could be developed by considering these genetic differences.
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Shared medical appointments (SMA) help patients learn skills to self-manage chronic medical conditions. While this model of care delivery is thought to improve access to care with an efficient use of healthcare providers' time, many healthcare teams struggle to implement this healthcare model. Guidance and training resources on the implementation of SMAs is expected to improve adoption, implementation and sustainability of SMAs.

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Background: Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (RASIs) at higher target doses reduce the risk of death in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Less is known about their effectiveness in octogenarians, the examination of which was the objective of this study.

Methods: Of 32,964 Veterans ≥80 years with HFrEF (ejection fraction ≤40%) receiving RASIs, 6655 received target-dose.

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Objective: To demonstrate the potential for a centrally managed health information exchange standardized to a common data model (HIE-CDM) to facilitate semantic data flow needed to support a learning health system (LHS).

Materials And Methods: The Rhode Island Quality Institute operates the Rhode Island (RI) statewide HIE, which aggregates RI health data for more than half of the state's population from 47 data partners. We standardized HIE data to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM.

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Background: National heart failure guidelines recommend quadruple therapy with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, beta-blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), most of whom also receive loop diuretics. However, the guidelines are less clear about the safe approaches to discontinuing older drugs whose decreasing or residual benefit is less well understood. The objective of this study was to examine whether digoxin can be safely discontinued in patients with HFrEF receiving beta-blockers.

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Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) are reported to have an increased risk of developing severe infections, leading to hospitalizations with sepsis. However, data regarding the impact of comorbid NAFLD on in-hospital outcomes of patients with sepsis is scarce. This nationwide retrospective observational study using discharge data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality included 21,057,911 adult patients who were admitted to hospitals in the United States between 2000 and 2019 with a primary discharge diagnosis of sepsis.

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Importance: Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of death in the US. The current evidence on the burdens of HF in Asian American populations, especially Asian American subgroups, is limited and inconsistent.

Objective: To assess and compare the incidence and prevalence of HF in Asian American subgroups.

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Purpose: Given the difficulty to perform exercise training wearing a mask, we examined differences in functional capacity improvement between masking during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and non-masking prior to the pandemic for patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation (CR).

Methods: Records of 660 patients who underwent and completed ≥ 18 sessions of CR in 2018 (n = 318, non-masking) and in 2022 (n = 342, masking) at an academic health system were analyzed. The primary outcome was post-CR change in functional capacity in metabolic equivalents (MET) measured by exercise stress test.

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Background: Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease among patients living with HIV (PLWH). Understanding the predictors and patterns of antihypertensive medication prescription and blood pressure (BP) control among PLWH with hypertension (HTN) is important to improve the primary prevention efforts for this high-risk population. We sought to assess important patient-level correlates (eg, race) and inter-facility variations in antihypertension medication prescriptions and BP control among Veterans living with HIV (VLWH) and HTN.

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Context: Concurrent care allows patients to receive hospice while continuing disease-directed therapies. This treatment model is available in the Veterans Administration (VA) medical system, but its use in Veterans with heart failure (HF) is unexplored.

Objective: To compare use of advanced HF therapies 30 days posthospitalization in Veterans on hospice versus not on hospice following admission for HF exacerbation.

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Background/aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) eradication using antiviral agents augments the metabolic profile. Changes in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in chronic hepatitis C patients who receive glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (GLE/PIB) remain elusive.

Methods: Data from 2417 patients treated with GLE/PIB from the Taiwan HCV Registry were analyzed, and pretreatment HbA1c levels were compared with 3-months after the-end-of treatment levels.

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Background: Shared medical appointments (SMAs) in heart failure (HF) are medical visits where several patients with HF meet with multidisciplinary providers at the same time for efficient and comprehensive care. It is unknown whether HF-SMAs can improve overall and cardiac health status for high-risk patients with HF discharged from acute care.

Methods And Results: A 3-site, open-label, randomized-controlled-trial was conducted.

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Article Synopsis
  • Older adults with heart failure are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, potentially influenced by insomnia and depression.
  • This study analyzed data from over 203,000 Veterans to determine how insomnia and depressive episodes affect the timing of dementia diagnosis.
  • Findings showed that patients with both insomnia and depression had the quickest progression to dementia, highlighting the need for screening these conditions to improve early detection and intervention.
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Prior studies have examined rural-urban disparities in access to cardiac rehabilitation (CR). However, few have examined the relationship between disparate access to CR and cardiovascular disease outcomes in rural areas. In this analysis of 1975 nonmetro United States counties, we investigated the relationship between number of hospitals with CR and Medicare-population hospitalization rates (per 1000 adults ≥65 years) and county-population mortality rates (per 100,000 adults ≥18 years) due to coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure (HF), or stroke, using multivariable linear-regression-modeling adjusting for socio-demographic and comorbid conditions.

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Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome with no definitive diagnostic tests. HF registries are often based on manual reviews of medical records of hospitalized HF patients identified using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. However, most HF patients are not hospitalized, and manual review of big electronic health record (EHR) data is not practical.

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Importance: Clinical outcomes after acute coronary syndromes (ACS) or percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) in people living with HIV have not been characterized in sufficient detail, and extant data have not been synthesized adequately.

Objective: To better characterize clinical outcomes and postdischarge treatment of patients living with HIV after ACS or PCIs compared with patients in an HIV-negative control group.

Data Sources: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for all available longitudinal studies of patients living with HIV after ACS or PCIs from inception until August 2023.

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Aims: According to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guideline, the definition of chronic kidney disease (CKD) requires the presence of abnormal kidney structure or function for >3 months with implications for health. CKD in patients with heart failure (HF) has not been defined using this definition, and less is known about the true health implications of CKD in these patients. The objective of the current study was to identify patients with HF who met KDIGO criteria for CKD and examine their outcomes.

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Introduction: Eight-week glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (GLE/PIB) is indicated for treatment-naïve (TN) patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), with or without compensated cirrhosis. Given that the Taiwanese government is committed to eliminating hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 2025, this study aimed to measure real-world evidence for TN patients using 8-week GLE/PIB in the Taiwan HCV Registry (TACR).

Methods: The data of patients with CHC treated with 8-week GLE/PIB were retrieved from TACR, a nationwide registry program organized by the Taiwan Association for the Study of the Liver (TASL).

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Purpose: This is a retrospective cohort study designed to evaluate the impact of having a prior COVID-19 infection on cardiac rehabilitation (CR) completion rates and outcomes.

Methods: Participants enrolled into the CR program from June 1, 2020, to March 30, 2022. They completed both physical and mental health assessments prior to enrollment and upon completion of the program.

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