J Formos Med Assoc
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Differential roles of comorbidity burden, functional status and severity of illness in elderly and non-elderly patients admitted to general wards with infections in terms of short-term and long-term mortality remain poorly understood and worth further investigation. ⋯ This study found that functional status on admission was predictive of in-hospital mortality of general patients with infections irrespective of age groups; however, it played a differential role in 1-year mortality in between elderly and non-elderly patients, emphasizing the importance of functional assessment among the elderly.
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A swine-origin influenza A/H1N1 virus (termed A/H1N1pdm) caused a pandemic in 2009 and has continuously circulated in the human population. To investigate its possible ecological effects on circulating influenza strains, the seasonal patterns of influenza viruses and the respective age distribution of infected patients were studies. ⋯ Understanding the effects of new variants and changes in dominant circulating viral strains on the age distribution of the affected human population, disease severity and epidemic levels is useful for the establishment of fine-tuned strategies for further improvement of influenza control.
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Observational Study
Impact of MELD score and cardiopulmonary bypass duration on post-operative hypoxic hepatitis in patients with liver cirrhosis undergoing open heart surgery.
The outcome of open-heart surgery for patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) varies widely, indicating multifactorial influences on liver injury after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). ⋯ For LC patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB, the incidence of POHH is highly associated with MELD score and CPB duration. To prevent POHH, the CPB duration should be shortened for those with MELD score between 5 and 20, and CPB be avoid for those with MELD >20.
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ABO blood system has many subgroups. In A group, A1 phenotype and A2 phenotype are more common, and A2 is caused by deletion or substitution in A1 allele (ABO*A1.01). ⋯ The 543 G > C nucleotide substitution of the present A1v allele (ABO*A1.02) shares the same sequence variation site with Ax allele (ABO*AW.33) (543 G > T), and both 543 G > C and 543 G > T nucleotide substitutions encode the same amino acid change of tryptophan to cysteine. Mechanism, such as allelic enhancement, has been proposed to explain this controversial phenotype-genotype relationship. But in present case, there has been no B allele to enhance the expression of Ax to that expected of A2, so there could be another novel underlying mechanism to be investigated.