Publications by authors named "Winnie W Chu"

Obesity has been steadily rising in the last few decades and to some extent, have been linked to exposure of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are intense stressors or traumatic events experienced or witnessed by children, ranging from all types of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), neglect, substance abuse or community violence. These traumatic events deprive the sense of safety and stability of a child, leaving psychological and physiological effects that span into adulthood.

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Lesion location is an important determinant for post-stroke cognitive impairment. Although several 'strategic' brain regions have previously been identified, a comprehensive map of strategic brain regions for post-stroke cognitive impairment is lacking due to limitations in sample size and methodology. We aimed to determine strategic brain regions for post-stroke cognitive impairment by applying multivariate lesion-symptom mapping in a large cohort of 410 acute ischemic stroke patients.

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Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are a consequence of cerebral small vessel disease. Statins have been shown to reduce recurrent stroke among patients with various stroke subtypes, including lacunar stroke, which also arises from small vessel disease. In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that prestroke statin use would reduce the progression of WMH and/or cognitive decline among stroke patients with confluent WMH.

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Background And Aim: Studies in stroke patients suggest that lacunar stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage might be more common in Chinese than Whites. We hypothesized that other manifestations of subclinical cerebral small vessel disease, namely white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes, and microbleeds, are also more common in Chinese than Whites. We compared the community prevalence of these lesions between Han Chinese and White Australians.

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Background: We hypothesized that chronic brain changes are important substrates for incident dementia after stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA).

Methods: We compared clinical and imaging features between patients with consecutive stroke/TIA with (n = 88) and without (n = 925) incident dementia at 3 to 6 months after a stroke/TIA. Pittsburg compound B (PiB) positron emission tomography was performed in 50 patients, including those with (n = 37) and without (n = 13) incident dementia.

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Background And Purpose: Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) affects up to half of stroke survivors and predicts poor outcomes. Valid and reliable assessement for VCI is lacking, especially for the Chinese population. In 2005, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN) Harmonisation workshop proposed a set of three neuropsychology protocols for VCI evaluation.

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Background And Purpose: We explored the association between pulsatility index (PI) as derived from transcranial Doppler ultrasound with various measures of small vessel disease in the community.

Methods: We performed transcranial Doppler and magnetic resonance imaging in 205 consecutive community-dwelling elderly subjects who were participants of the Shanghai Aging Study. We investigated the association between middle cerebral artery (MCA) PI with measures of white matter lesions (WML), lacunes, and microbleeds.

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Background: Although patients harboring confluent white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are at high risk of cognitive decline, this risk varies among individuals. We investigated the predictors for cognitive decline in stroke patients with confluent WMH.

Methods: We followed up 100 stroke patients with confluent WMH who were participants of the VITAmins TO Prevent Stroke study for 2 years.

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Renal dysfunction can be evaluated by increased intra-renal arterial resistance index (RI). We evaluated 113 Chinese men with type 2 diabetes on their RI. Results suggest that RI is associated with chronic kidney disease and subclinical arteriosclerosis.

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