J Formos Med Assoc
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Observational Study
Improved performance of new prenotification criteria for acute stroke patients.
We aim to evaluate the accuracy of the new prehospital notification criteria for patients with potential acute stroke in the prehospital setting. ⋯ The accuracy of the new prehospital stroke criteria has higher PPV and specificity compared to previous CPSS validation studies.
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Case Reports
A new reportable disease is born: Taiwan Centers for Disease Control's response to emerging Zika virus infection.
Zika virus infection, usually a mild disease transmitted through the bite of Aedes mosquitos, has been reported to be possibly associated with microcephaly and neurologic complications. Taiwan's first imported case of Zika virus infection was found through fever screening at airport entry in January 2016. No virus was isolated from patient's blood taken during acute illness; however, PCR products showed that the virus was of Asian lineage closely related to virus from Cambodia. ⋯ Besides the first imported case, no additional cases of Zika virus infection have been identified. Furthermore, no significant increase in the number of microcephaly or Guillain- Barré Syndrome has been observed in Taiwan. To date, there have been no autochthonous transmissions of Zika virus infection.
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Extended hormonal therapy with tamoxifen for > 5 years has improved disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to identify the HR-positive breast cancer women who need adjuvant tamoxifen for > 5 years. ⋯ Our findings suggest that HR-positive breast cancer women either aged < 40 years or with positive lymph node status were justified in continuing with tamoxifen therapy for > 5 years.