Diabetic peripheral neuropathy: age-stratified glycemic control.

Background: We explore the effect of suboptimal glycemic control on the incidence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in both non-elderly and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: A 6-year follow-up study (2013-2019) enrolled T2DM patients aged >20 without DPN. Participants were classified into two groups: those below 65 years (non-elderly) and those 65 years or older (elderly). Biochemical measurements, including glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), were recorded regularly. DPN was diagnosed using the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument examination. The outcome was DPN occurrence in 2019. Results: In 552 enrollments (69% non-elderly), DPN occurred in 8.4% non-elderly and 24.0% elderly patients. A higher initial HbA1C level was significantly linked with a higher risk of future DPN in the non-elderly group (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.46, 95% CI 1.13-1.89, p=0.004). In comparison, HbA1c at the end of the study period was not associated with DPN in the non-elderly group (AOR 1.17, 95% CI 0.72-1.90, p=0.526). In the elderly group, no statistical relationship was found between HbA1C levels and DPN, either in 2013 or in 2019. Conclusion: Suboptimal glycemic control at baseline, rather than at the end of the study period, predicts an increased risk of future DPN in individuals with T2DM under age 65. This correlation is not seen in elderly patients. Therefore, we recommend implementing enhanced glycemic control early in middle-aged T2DM patients and propose individualized therapeutic strategies for diabetes in different age groups.

Obesity indices and the risk of total and cardiovascular mortality among people with diabetes: a long-term follow-up study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: The association between obesity indicators and mortality in individuals with diabetes remains unclear, and data on cardiovascular mortality are scarce. Therefore, we investigated the associations between the five adiposity indices and both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with diabetes. METHODS: This cohort study included 34,686 adults with diabetes who underwent a standard health-screening program between 1996 and 2017 in Taiwan. The dates and causes of death till January 2022 were retrieved from the National Death Registry. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in relation to body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR), body fat percentage (BF%), and A Body Shape Index (ABSI), using the third quintile as the reference group. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 15 years, there were 8,324 deaths, of which 1,748 were attributed to cardiovascular disease. After adjusting for demographics, lifestyle factors and comorbidities, ABSI was associated with all-cause mortality in an exposure-response manner; the HR (95% CI) for first and fifth vs. third quintile was 0.78 (0.69-0.89) and 1.24 (1.14-1.35), respectively. A similar but weaker exposure-response relationship was found between WHR and mortality. People with a lower BMI and BF% had an increased risk of mortality (HR [95% CI] for the first vs. third quintiles, 1.33 [1.22, 1.44] and 1.42 [1.30, 1.56], respectively). No association was observed between waist circumference categories and risk of mortality. Similar results were observed for the association of BF%, waist circumference, and ABSI with cardiovascular mortality. However, no significant association was observed between BMI and cardiovascular mortality. The association between WHR and cardiovascular mortality was stronger than that between WHR and all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: ABSI demonstrated a consistent exposure-response relationship with both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in this Asian cohort with diabetes. Our findings highlight the importance of monitoring ABSI, a surrogate index of central adiposity, in patients with diabetes.

Long-term survival and prognostic implications of patients with invasive breast cancer in southern Taiwan.

Our objective in this study was to determine the survival rate of patients with invasive breast cancer and identify the prognostic factors related to all-cause mortality during a 10-year follow-up.Analysis was performed on the medical records of 2002 patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer at a medical center in southern Taiwan between 2006 and 2017. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used to estimate survival and the independence of prognostic factors associated with all-cause mortality.Among the 2002 patients, 257 expired during the 10-year follow-up period. The overall survival rates were as follows: 3 years (91.1%), 5 years (85.6%), and 10 years (77.9%). The median survival time was 120.41 months (95% confidence interval: 118.48-122.33 months). Older age, pathologic tumor status, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, grade/differentiation, treatment modalities, and hormone therapy were significantly related to all-cause mortality.This study identified several clinical factors related to all-cause mortality as well as its relationship to distant metastasis and poor differentiation. Early diagnosis and treatment aimed at preventing recurrence are the keys to survival.

Risk factors for drainage-requiring ascites after refractory peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients.

PURPOSE: Refractory peritonitis remains a thorny issue for patients with chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD). Shortly after catheter removal, some patients develop persistent peritoneal inflammation and ascites formation, which require percutaneous drainage for symptom relief. Our study aimed at finding the risk factors for this kind of event. METHODS: A total of 47 PD patients complicated with refractory peritonitis who underwent catheter removal between January 2009 and December 2011 were enrolled in this study. Data were compared between patients with and without the development of symptomatic ascites requiring drainage during hospitalization. RESULTS: Among the 47 refractory peritonitis patients, 15 patients developed symptomatic ascites that needed further drainage shortly after catheter removal during hospitalization. The following factors were associated with an increased risk: longer dialysis duration, higher peritoneal Kt/V urea, and a significant rise in serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level after catheter removal. These patients had a prolonged hospital stay (62 vs 21 days, P < 0.001) and a significantly higher risk of recurrent loculated ascites during subsequent 6 months of follow-up (33.3 vs 6.2 %, P = 0.022) compared with patients who did not develop ascites requiring drainage during hospitalization. CONCLUSION: A significant portion of patients with refractory PD peritonitis experienced ascites requiring drainage shortly after catheter removal, which led to a prolonged hospitalization. Whether routine drain placement at the time of catheter removal for this high-risk group would be of benefit warrants further prospective studies.

Outcome of patients with carbon monoxide poisoning at a far-east poison center.

INTRODUCTION: Many cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in Taiwan are due to burning charcoal. Nevertheless, few reports have analyzed the mortality rate of these patients who survive to reach a hospital and die despite intensive treatment. Therefore, this study examined the clinical features, physiological markers, and outcomes after carbon monoxide poisoning and the associations between these findings. METHODS: We analyzed the records of 261 patients who were referred for management of carbon monoxide intoxication between 2000 and 2010. Patients were grouped according to status at discharge as alive (survivor, n = 242) or dead (non-survivor, n = 19). Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and mortality data were obtained for analysis. RESULTS: Approximately half of the cases (49.4%) attempted suicide by burning charcoal. Most of the patients were middle-aged adults (33±19 years), and were referred to our hospital in a relatively short period of time (6±10 hours). Carbon monoxide produced many serious complications after exposure: fever (26.1%), hypothermia (9.6%), respiratory failure (34.1%), shock (8.4%), myocardial infarction (8.0%), gastrointestinal upset (34.9%), hepatitis (18.4%), renal failure (25.3%), coma (18.0%) and rhabdomyolysis (21.8%). Furthermore, the non-survivors suffered greater incidences of hypothermia (P<0.001), respiratory failure (P<0.001), shock (P<0.001), hepatitis ((P=0.016), renal failure (P=0.003), coma (P<0.001) than survivors. All patients were treated with high concentration of oxygen therapy using non-rebreather mask. However, hyperbaric oxygen therapy was only used in 18.8% of the patients. In a multivariate-Cox-regression model, it was revealed that shock status was a significant predictor for mortality after carbon monoxide poisoning (OR 8.696, 95% CI 2.053-37.370, P=0.003). Finally, Kaplan-Meier analysis confirmed that patients with shock suffered greater cumulative mortality than without shock (Log-rank test, Chi-square 147.404, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The mortality rate for medically treated carbon monoxide-poisoned patients at our center was 7.3%. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that shock was most strongly associated with higher risk of mortality.

Spectrum of corrosive esophageal injury after intentional paraquat or glyphosate-surfactant herbicide ingestion.

BACKGROUND: Data on the spectrum of corrosive injury to the esophagus after paraquat or glyphosate-surfactant ingestion are sparse in the literature and confined to case studies and brief reports. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the clinical features, degrees of esophageal injury, and clinical outcomes after paraquat or glyphosate herbicide ingestion, and sought to determine what association, if any, may exist between these findings. METHODS: We performed an observational study on 47 patients with paraquat or glyphosate ingestion who underwent endoscopic evaluation over a period of 11 years (2000-2011). RESULTS: Corrosive esophageal injuries were classified as grade 1 in 14 (glyphosate-surfactant) and three (paraquat), grade 2a in nine (glyphosate-surfactant) and 18 (paraquat), and grade 2b in one (glyphosate-surfactant) and two (paraquat) patients. No patients had grade 0, 3a, or 3b esophageal injuries. Therefore, the severity of corrosive injury was more severe in the paraquat group (P = 0.005). After toxin ingestion, systemic toxicity occurred, with rapid development of systemic complications in many cases. Neurologic complications occurred more frequently in the glyphosate-surfactant group (29.2% versus 0%, P = 0.005), although respiratory failure (4.2% versus 34.8%, P = 0.008), hepatitis (12.5% versus 52.2%, P = 0.004), and renal failure (20.8% versus 52.2%, P = 0.025) developed more frequently in the paraquat group. Patients with glyphosate poisoning had shorter hospital stays than patients with paraquat poisoning (13.3 ± 15.1 days versus 26.8 ± 10.2 days, P = 0.001). Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in mortality rate between the glyphosate-surfactant and paraquat groups (8.3% versus 13.0%, P = 0.601). We ultimately found that patients with grade 2b esophageal injury suffered from a greater incidence of respiratory (100.0% versus 5.9%, P = 0.001) and gastrointestinal (66.7% versus 11.8%, P = 0.034) complications than patients with grade 1 injury, regardless of herbicide type. CONCLUSION: Paraquat and glyphosate are mild caustic agents that produce esophageal injuries of grades 1, 2a, and 2b only. Our data also suggest a potential relationship between the degree of esophageal injury and systemic complications.

Probing the interaction between prostacyclin synthase and prostaglandin H2 analogues or inhibitors via a combination of resonance Raman spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation approaches.

In an aim to probe the structure-function relationship of prostacyclin synthase (PGIS), resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamic (MD) simulation approaches have been exploited to characterize the heme conformation and heme-protein matrix interactions for human PGIS (hPGIS) and zebrafish PGIS (zPGIS) in the presence and absence of ligands. The high-frequency RR (1300-1700 cm(-1)) indicates that the heme group is in the ferric, six-coordinate, low-spin state for both resting and ligand-bound hPGIS/zPGIS. The low-frequency RR (300-500 cm(-1)) and MD simulation reveal a salient difference in propionate-protein matrix interactions between hPGIS and zPGIS, as evident by a predominant propionate bending vibration at 386 cm(-1) in resting hPGIS, but two vibrations near 370 and 387 cm(-1) in resting zPGIS. Upon binding of a substrate analogue (U46619, U51605, or U44069), both hPGIS and zPGIS induce a distinctive perturbation of the propionate-protein matrix interactions, resulting in similar Raman shifts to ~381 cm(-1). On the contrary, the bending vibration remains unchanged upon binding of inhibitor/ligand (minoxidil, clotrimazole, or miconazole), indicating that these inhibitors/ligands do not interfere with the propionate-protein matrix interactions. These results, together with subtle changes in vinyl bending modes, demonstrate drastically different RR shifts with heme conformational changes in both hPGIS and zPGIS upon different ligand bindings, suggesting that PGIS exhibits a ligand-specific heme conformational change to accommodate the substrate binding. This substrate-induced modulation of the heme conformation may confer high product fidelity upon PGIS catalysis.