J Formos Med Assoc
-
Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) infections affect patient morbidity and mortality and challenge infection control procedures within dialysis facilities. Thus, updated information on the yearly infection trends in the dialysis population is pivotal to preventing and improving the management of these infectious diseases. ⋯ The increasing yearly trend of treated HBV and HCV and a stable trend of treated TB provide evidence for further infection control management and risk population identification of the HD population.
-
To identify the outcome-associated predictors and develop predictive models for patients receiving targeted temperature management (TTM) by artificial neural network (ANN). ⋯ The ANN-based models achieved good performance to predict the survival and favorable neurologic outcomes after TTM. The models proposed have clinical value to assist in decision-making.
-
Increased intra-individual variability (IIV) in reaction time (RT) is a key feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, little is known about neurobiology underpinnings of IIV in ADHD. ⋯ This study highlights that brain regions responsible for the motor, salience processing and multimodal information integration are associated with increased IIV in youths with ADHD.
-
This study aimed to establish more practical standardized barium stimuli formulas for the videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) for clinical use. For clinical practice, we established the formula for preparing barium stimuli to comply with different International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) levels. To comply with the definition of IDDSI levels 0-4, the gum-based thickener concentration of thickened barium was 0, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, and 2.0 g/100 mL, respectively. The formulas established in this study may replace traditional barium stimuli for dysphagia assessment in clinical settings.
-
End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is a global burden that reflects each country's unique condition. We used the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan to decipher changes in the mortality and international survival rates and to determine the effectiveness of the pre-end-stage renal disease care program (pre-ESRD care program) to guide future health policies for ESKD. ⋯ From 2010 to 2018, the reduced mortality in young patients and aging of the ESKD population might indicate that the quality of care in Taiwan for ESKD has improved. Furthermore, a better survival rate after dialysis initiation was observed in the pre-ESRD care program participants.