Assessing herpes zoster vaccine efficacy in patients with diabetes: A community-based cohort study.

The effectiveness of herpes zoster (HZ) vaccines in patients with diabetes over the age of 50 remains an active area of research. Utilizing a real-world database from the US community, this study spanning from 2006 to 2023, aimed to evaluate the impact of HZ vaccination on newly diagnosed diabetes patients who received an HZ vaccination within 1 year of diagnosis. Exclusion criteria were established to omit patients with immune deficiencies. The cohort consisted of 53 885 patients, with an average age of 63.5 years, including 43% females and 58% whites. After implementing 1:1 propensity score matching for age, sex, race, comorbidities, diabetes medication, and hemoglobin A1c to ensure comparability, the study population was further stratified into four groups: N1 comparing any HZ vaccination to non-HZ vaccination (53 882 matched pairs), N2 for Shingrix versus non-HZ vaccination (16 665 matched pairs), N3 for Zostavax versus non-HZ vaccination (12 058 matched pairs), and N4 for Shingrix versus Zostavax (11 721 matched pairs). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed a hazard ratio (HR) for HZ incidence post any HZ vaccination of 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83-1.01). Additional analyses yielded HRs of 1.12 (95% CI: 0.93-1.34) for Shingrix versus non-HZ vaccine, 1.02 (95% CI: 0.86-1.20) for Zostavax versus non-HZ vaccine, and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.87-1.29) for Shingrix versus Zostavax. Subgroup analyses across age, sex, and follow-up duration also showed no significant differences. These findings underscore the lack of a significant benefit from HZ vaccination in newly diagnosed diabetes patients aged over 50, highlighting the necessity for further prospective research.

Association of COVID-19 Infection with Subsequent Thyroid Dysfunction: An International Population-Based Propensity Score Matched Analysis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on thyroid function is a growing concern. Previous studies have produced inconclusive results, and there is a lack of comprehensive research into the long-term risks of thyroid dysfunction following COVID-19 infection. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we used data from the TriNetX international database, which includes electronic health records from a broad, diverse patient population. We compared patients with COVID-19 (cases) to those without (controls), matching for age, sex, race, and comorbidities using propensity score matching. The primary outcome was the diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction (thyrotoxicosis or hypothyroidism) within a 12-month period, analyzed using hazard ratios (HRs) and Kaplan-Meier curves, and stratified by age and sex. Results: Initially, the study included 1,379,311 COVID-19 patients and 6,896,814 non-COVID-19 patients from the TriNetX database. After matching, the cohorts were comparable in demographics and baseline characteristics. This study consistently demonstrated a significant increase in the risk of thyroid dysfunction, including thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism, among COVID-19 patients compared to non-COVID-19 patients. In the short term (3 months postexposure), the COVID-19 group exhibited a HR of 2.07 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.01-2.12) for thyroid dysfunction, which included both thyrotoxicosis (HR 2.10, CI 1.92-2.29) and hypothyroidism (HR 2.08, CI 2.01-2.13). This heightened risk persisted over the long term (up to 12 months), with HRs indicating an ∼2.01-fold increased risk for overall thyroid dysfunction, a 1.8-fold increased risk for thyrotoxicosis, and a 2.04-fold increased risk for hypothyroidism. Subgroup analysis, stratified by age and sex, revealed a notably higher risk of thyroid dysfunction in patients aged 65 and above (HR 2.18, CI 2.11-2.25), compared to those in the under-65 age group (HR 1.97, CI 1.91-2.03). Both male and female patients were associated with an elevated risk, with females showing a slightly higher association with thyroid dysfunction (HR 2.12, CI 2.06-2.16) compared to males (HR 1.76, CI 1.69-1.82). Conclusions: COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of thyroid dysfunction, including thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism, regardless of age or sex, during a 12-month follow-up period. Further research is required to validate these findings.

Pioglitazone, SGLT2 inhibitors and their combination for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and heart failure in type 2 diabetes: Real-world evidence from a nationwide cohort database.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of SGLT2is, pioglitazone, and their combination on the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and heart failure in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients without a history of cardiovascular disease. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, we identified four groups based on medication use, including 1) both SGLT2is and pioglitazone, 2) SGLT2i, 3) pioglitazone and 4) non-study drugs (reference group). The four groups were matched by propensity score. The primary outcome was 3-point MACE, which included myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiovascular death, and the secondary outcome was incidence of heart failure. RESULTS: After propensity-matching, each group included 15,601 patients. Compared with the reference group, the pioglitazone/SGLT2i combination group had a significantly lower risk for MACE (aHR 0.76, 95 % CI 0.66-0.88) and heart failure (aHR 0.67, 95 % CI 0.55-0.82). Pioglitazone was associated with a lower risk of MACE (aHR 0.82, 95 % CI 0.71-0.94) and there was no difference in risk of heart failure compared with the reference group. The incidence of heart failure was significantly decreased in the SGLT2i group (aHR 0.7, 95 % CI 0.58-0.86). CONCLUSION: Combination therapy with pioglitazone and SGLT2is is an effective treatment in the primary prevention of MACE and heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Aspirin and Risk of Specific Breast Cancer Subtype in Women with Diabetes.

Purpose: Low-dose aspirin was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer in women with diabetes. However, whether the protective effect of aspirin varies as a function of the hormone receptor status of breast cancer remained an unanswered question. This study aims to explore the association between aspirin use and the risk of specific breast cancer subtypes in women with diabetes. Methods: Population-based retrospective cohort study of women with diabetes, using the Taiwan National Health Insurance reimbursement database (year 1998 to 2011). Patients diagnosed to have diabetes with new low-dose aspirin use (75-165 mg per day) for at least 28 days of prescription were identified as the study population, while patients without low-dose aspirin use were selected as controls. The main outcome measure was breast cancer by aspirin use and hormone receptor status. Results: We studied a total of 148,739 patients with diabetes. Their mean (standard deviation) age was 63.3 (12.8) years. During follow-up, a total of 849 breast cancers occurred, including 329 hormone receptor-positive and 529 hormone receptor-negative tumors. A total of 27,378 patients were taking aspirin. The reduction in risk with aspirin use was seen among those with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (Hazard ratio [HR]: 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-0.91) but not for women with hormone receptor-negative breast cancer (HR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.74-1.05). A cumulative dose of aspirin use of more than 8,600 mg was found to reduce the risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer by 31% (HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.50-0.97). A cumulative dose of aspirin use of more than 88,900 mg was found to reduce both the risk of hormone receptor-positive and negative breast cancer. Conclusion: These data add to the growing evidence that supports the use of low-dose aspirin as a potential chemopreventive agent for specific subtypes of breast cancer. Further studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

Artificial intelligence system for the detection of Barrett's esophagus.

BACKGROUND: Barrett's esophagus (BE), which has increased in prevalence worldwide, is a precursor for esophageal adenocarcinoma. Although there is a gap in the detection rates between endoscopic BE and histological BE in current research, we trained our artificial intelligence (AI) system with images of endoscopic BE and tested the system with images of histological BE. AIM: To assess whether an AI system can aid in the detection of BE in our setting. METHODS: Endoscopic narrow-band imaging (NBI) was collected from Chung Shan Medical University Hospital and Changhua Christian Hospital, resulting in 724 cases, with 86 patients having pathological results. Three senior endoscopists, who were instructing physicians of the Digestive Endoscopy Society of Taiwan, independently annotated the images in the development set to determine whether each image was classified as an endoscopic BE. The test set consisted of 160 endoscopic images of 86 cases with histological results. RESULTS: Six pre-trained models were compared, and EfficientNetV2B2 (accuracy [ACC]: 0.8) was selected as the backbone architecture for further evaluation due to better ACC results. In the final test, the AI system correctly identified 66 of 70 cases of BE and 85 of 90 cases without BE, resulting in an ACC of 94.37%. CONCLUSION: Our AI system, which was trained by NBI of endoscopic BE, can adequately predict endoscopic images of histological BE. The ACC, sensitivity, and specificity are 94.37%, 94.29%, and 94.44%, respectively.

Association of Long Noncoding RNA HOTAIR Polymorphism and the Clinical Manifestations of Diabetic Retinopathy.

The aim of the current study is to evaluate the possible correlation between the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of HOX transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) and the clinical characteristics of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Four loci of HOTAIR SNPs, including rs920778 (T/C), rs12427129 (C/T), rs4759314 (A/G), and rs1899663 (G/T), were genotyped via the TaqMan allelic discrimination for 276 DR individuals and 452 non-DR patients. The distribution frequency of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.571, 95% CI: 1.025-2.408, p = 0.038], HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 1.611, 95% CI: 1.061-2.446, p = 0.025), and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 2.443, 95% CI: 1.066-5.595, p = 0.035) were significantly higher in the DR group. Moreover, the proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) subgroup revealed a significantly higher distribution of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 2.016, 95% CI: 1.096-3.710, p = 0.024) and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 4.693, 95% CI: 1.765-12.479, p = 0.002), and the distribution frequencies of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT (AOR: 3.722, 95% CI: 1.555-8.909, p = 0.003), HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 4.070, 95% CI: 1.725-9.600, p = 0.001), and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 11.131, 95% CI: 1.521-81.490, p = 0.018) were significantly higher in the female PDR subgroup. Regarding the clinical characters, the DR patients with HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 GT+TT revealed a significantly shorter duration of diabetes compared to the DR patients with HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 GG (10.54 ± 8.19 versus 12.79 ± 7.73, p = 0.024). In conclusion, HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 and rs1899663 are strongly correlated to the presence of DR, especially for a female with PDR.

Liraglutide Attenuates Glucolipotoxicity-Induced RSC96 Schwann Cells' Inflammation and Dysfunction.

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a type of sensory nerve damage that can occur in patients with diabetes. Although the understanding of pathophysiology is incomplete, DN is often associated with structural and functional alterations of the affected neurons. Among all possible causes of nerve damage, Schwann cells (SCs) are thought to play a key role in repairing peripheral nerve injury, suggesting that functional deficits occurring in SCs may potentially exhibit their pathogenic roles in DN. Therefore, elucidating the mechanisms that underlie this pathology can be used to develop novel therapeutic targets. In this regard, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have recently attracted great attention in ameliorating SCs' dysfunction. However, the detailed mechanisms remain uncertain. In the present study, we investigated how GLP-1 RA Liraglutide protects against RSC96 SCs dysfunction through a diabetic condition mimicked by high glucose and high free fatty acid (FFA). Our results showed that high glucose and high FFAs reduced the viability of RSC96 SCs by up to 51%, whereas Liraglutide reduced oxidative stress by upregulating antioxidant enzymes, and thus protected cells from apoptosis. Liraglutide also inhibited NFκB-mediated inflammation, inducing SCs to switch from pro-inflammatory cytokine production to anti-inflammatory cytokine production. Moreover, Liraglutide upregulated the production of neurotrophic factors and myelination-related proteins, and these protective effects appear to be synergistically linked to insulin signaling. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that Liraglutide ameliorates diabetes-related SC dysfunction through the above-mentioned mechanisms, and suggest that modulating GLP-1 signaling in SCs may be a promising strategy against DN.

Impact of Long Noncoding RNA LINC00673 Genetic Variants on Susceptibility to Diabetic Retinopathy.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to play critical roles in diabetic retinopathy (DR). This study investigated whether the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of long intergenic noncoding RNA 00673 (LINC00673) affects the clinical characteristics of diabetic retinopathy (DR). A total of three loci of LINC00673 SNPs (rs6501551, rs9914618, and rs11655237) were genotyped using TaqMan allelic discrimination in 276 and 454 individuals with and without DR, respectively. Our results revealed that LINC00673 SNP rs11655237 CT genotype (AOR: 1.592, 95% CI: 1.059-2.395, p = 0.026), CT + TT genotype (AOR: 1.255, 95% CI: 1.029-1.531, p = 0.025), and allele T (AOR: 1.185, 95% CI: 1.004-1.397, p = 0.044) yielded higher ratios in the non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) subgroup than in the non-DR group. Furthermore, the interval of diabetes mellitus (DM) was significantly shorter in the LINC00673 SNP rs11655237 CT + TT variant than that in the LINC00673 SNP rs11655237 wild type (10.44 ± 7.10 vs. 12.98 ± 8.34, p = 0.009). In conclusion, the LINC00673 SNP rs11655237 T allele is associated with a higher probability of NPDR development. Patients with the LINC00673 SNP rs11655237 CT + TT variant exhibited a short DM interval.

Association of Long Non-Coding RNA Growth Arrest-Specific 5 Genetic Variants with Diabetic Retinopathy.

The aim of this work was to appraise the potential associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of long non-coding RNA growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) with diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a diabetes mellitus (DM) population. Two loci of the GAS5 SNPs (rs55829688 and rs145204276) were genotyped via TaqMan allelic discrimination in 449 non-DR patients and 273 DR subjects. The SNP rs145204276 Del/Del showed a significantly higher distribution in the DR group compared to the non-DR group (AOR: 2.487, 95% CI: 1.424-4.344, p = 0.001). During subgroup analyses, the non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) subgroup demonstrated a significantly higher ratio of the SNP rs145204276 Del/Del (AOR: 2.917, 95% CI: 1.574-5.406, p = 0.001) and Ins/Del + Del/Del (AOR: 1.242, 95% CI: 1.016-1.519, p = 0.034) compared to the non-DR population, while the proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) subgroup did not reveal significant differences in either SNP rs145204276 or rs55829688 distributions compared to the non-DR group. Furthermore, patients with a GAS5 SNP rs145204276 Del/Del showed a significantly shorter DM duration than the wild type (Ins/Ins) (p = 0.021). In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the GAS5 SNP rs145204276 Del/Del variant is associated with an increased susceptibility to DR in DM patients, particularly in those patients with NPDR.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the hypoglycemic efficacy of the mcIRBP-19-containing Momordica charantia L. fruit extracts in the type 2 diabetic subjects.

BACKGROUND: The fruits of Momordica charantia L., also named as bitter gourd or bitter melon in popular, is a common tropical vegetable that is traditionally used to reduce blood glucose. A peptide derived from bitter gourd, Momordica charantia insulin receptor binding peptid-19 (mcIRBP-19), had been demonstrated to possess an insulin-like effect in vitro and in the animal studies. However, the benefit of the mcIRBP-19-containing bitter gourd extracts (mcIRBP-19-BGE) for lowering blood glucose levels in humans is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This aim of this study was to evaluate the hypoglycemic efficacy of mcIRBP-19-BGE in subjects with type 2 diabetes who had taken antidiabetic medications but failed to achieve the treatment goal. Whether glucose lowering efficacy of mcIRBP-19-BGE could be demonstrated when the antidiabetic medications were ineffective was also studied. DESIGN: Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups: mcIRBP-19-BGE treatment group (N = 20) and placebo group (N = 20), and were orally administered 600 mg/day investigational product or placebo for 3 months. Subjects whose hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) continued declining before the trial initiation with the antidiabetic drugs were excluded from the subset analysis to further investigate the efficacy for those who failed to respond to the antidiabetic medications. RESULTS: The oral administration of mcIRBP-19-BGE decreased with a borderline significance at fasting blood glucose (FBG; P = 0.057) and HbA1c (P = 0.060). The subgroup analysis (N = 29) showed that mcIRBP-19-BGE had a significant effect on reducing FBG (from 172.5 ± 32.6 mg/dL to 159.4 ± 18.3 mg/dL, P = 0.041) and HbA1c (from 8.0 ± 0.7% to 7.5 ± 0.8%, P = 0.010). CONCLUSION: All of these results demonstrate that mcIRBP-19-BGE possesses a hypoglycemic effect, and can have a significant reduction in FBG and HbA1c when the antidiabetic drugs are ineffective.

The efficacy of pioglitazone for renal protection in diabetic kidney disease.

There is limited information on the efficacy of pioglitazone in diabetic kidney diseases (DKD). We evaluated whether pioglitazone exerts renal-protective effects in DKD patients. We designed a retrospective cohort study, which included 742 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with DKD in Taiwan, with eGFR between 30 and 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 and UACR level 300-5000 mg/g. Patients not meeting the target range for HbA1c (above 7%) were given additional medication with pioglitazone (n = 111) or received standard care (non-pioglitazone group, n = 631). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of composite renal endpoints, which was defined as sustained eGFR<15 ml/min/1.73 m2 (confirmed by two measurements within 90 days); doubling of serum creatinine (compared to baseline); and the presence of hemodialysis or renal transplantation. The median follow-up duration was two years. At baseline, the mean HbA1C levels in the pioglitazone and non-pioglitazone groups were 8.8% and 8.1%, respectively; mean ages were 64.4 and 66.2 years old, respectively; diabetes durations were 14.3 and 12.3 years, respectively. Baseline eGFR showed no significant difference between the pioglitazone and non-pioglitazone groups (55.8 and 58.8 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively). In terms of gender, 63% of patients were male in the pioglitazone group compared with 57% in the non-pioglitazone group. Pioglitazone use did not reduce the risk of composite renal endpoints in DKD patients (HR: 0.97, 95% CI = 0.53-1.77), including persistent eGFR<15 ml/min/1.73 m2 (HR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.46-2.52), doubling of serum creatinine (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.53-1.77), or ESRD (HR = 2.58, 95% CI = 0.29-23.04). The results were not changed after various adjustments. A non-significant albuminuria reduction was also noted after pioglitazone prescription in DKD patients. Further randomized controlled studies are needed to establish the effects of pioglitazone definitively.

Deep Learning for Automated Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Fused With Heterogeneous Data From EHRs Can Lead to Earlier Referral Decisions.

Purpose: Fundus images are typically used as the sole training input for automated diabetic retinopathy (DR) classification. In this study, we considered several well-known DR risk factors and attempted to improve the accuracy of DR screening. Metphods: Fusing nonimage data (e.g., age, gender, smoking status, International Classification of Disease code, and laboratory tests) with data from fundus images can enable an end-to-end deep learning architecture for DR screening. We propose a neural network that simultaneously trains heterogeneous data and increases the performance of DR classification in terms of sensitivity and specificity. In the current retrospective study, 13,410 fundus images and their corresponding nonimage data were collected from the Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taiwan. The images were classified as either nonreferable or referable for DR by a panel of ophthalmologists. Cross-validation was used for the training models and to evaluate the classification performance. Results: The proposed fusion model achieved 97.96% area under the curve with 96.84% sensitivity and 89.44% specificity for determining referable DR from multimodal data, and significantly outperformed the models that used image or nonimage information separately. Conclusions: The fusion model with heterogeneous data has the potential to improve referable DR screening performance for earlier referral decisions. Translational Relevance: Artificial intelligence fused with heterogeneous data from electronic health records could provide earlier referral decisions from DR screening.

Epidemiology and factors associated with mortality of thyroid storm in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based study.

Thyroid storm is a rare and life-threatening disease. However, its prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate in Chinese population are unknown. We performed a retrospective study using the Taiwan Health and Welfare Data. Patients admitted owing to thyrotoxicosis were divided into thyroid storm group and non-thyroid storm group. We assessed thyroid storm prevalence, incidence, complications, and mortality rate. Multiple Cox regression was performed to estimate the hazard ratio for the mortality risk. Overall, 1244 thyroid storm patients and 83,874 thyrotoxicosis patients without thyroid storm were included. Most thyroid storm patients were female (67.9%) with ages ranging from 30 to 44 years (33.4%), and most thyroid storm cases occurred during the summer season. The prevalence of thyroid storm was 1.48% (1244/83,874). The incidence rate of thyroid storm was 0.55 per 100,000 persons per year and 6.28 per 100,000 hospitalized patients per year. The overall 14-, 28-, and 90-day mortality rates of thyroid storm patients were 5.23%, 6.59%, and 8.12%, respectively. Thyroid storm, older age, male, and underlying ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, kidney disease, atrial fibrillation, depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer, end stage renal diseases were associated with a significantly higher risk of mortality. In conclusion, the 90-day mortality rate of thyroid storm was high and was commonly associated with multiorgan failure and shock. Therefore, clinical physicians should identify thyroid storm and treat it accordingly.

Osteoporosis and Stress Urinary Incontinence in Women: A National Health Insurance Database Study.

We aimed to determine the influence of osteoporosis and stress urinary incontinence in women. We hypothesized that women with osteoporosis had an increased risk of stress urinary incontinence. This retrospective study used data from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance database from 2005-2009. The study population was screened to identify women (age ≥ 40 years) newly diagnosed with osteoporosis (ICD-9-CM code = 733.0, 733.1). The osteoporosis cohort included 6125, and the non-osteoporosis cohort included 12,250 participants. The newly diagnosed stress urinary incontinence incidence was calculated to determine the influence of osteoporosis and stress urinary incontinence. We used the Cox proportional hazards model to predict the effects of stress urinary incontinence and the Kaplan-Meier analysis to estimate the cumulative incidence of stress urinary incontinence in women. Participants with osteoporosis experienced a 1.79 times higher risk than that of the non-osteoporosis group (95% CI = 1.28-2.51) for stress urinary incontinence, regardless of age. We did not observe a higher risk of stress urinary incontinence in participants with pathological fractures compared to those with simple osteoporosis. Our data emphasized that physicians and nurses should conduct urinary incontinence screening in women with osteoporosis to recommend proper treatment, medical help or to bring the disorder to light.

Optimal Initial Blood Pressure in Intensive Care Unit Patients with Non-Traumatic Intracranial Hemorrhage.

Blood pressure (BP) control is crucial for minimizing the risk of mortality and hematoma growth in patients with acute intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). We aimed to determine the optimal BP range associated with improved patient outcomes. From the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-III database, we identified 1493 patients (age, 18-99 years) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with non-traumatic ICH. The 3-day and 14-day mortality of ICU admissions were compared at different BP ranges. Generalized additive models were used to assess the optimal range of initial mean arterial pressure, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure, and these were identified to be 70-100, 120-150, and 60-100 mmHg, respectively. The 3-day or 14-day mortality showed U-shaped correlations with BP ranges. Our results show that an initial SBP between 120 and 150 mmHg is associated with minimal risk of mortality risk. This recommendation can assist physicians to achieve better outcomes for patients with ICH.

Association of blood glucose and renal end points in advanced diabetic kidney disease.

AIMS: The association of blood glucose in advanced diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is unclear. This study investigated the association between blood glucose and renal endpoints in DKD patients. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study enrolled type 2 diabetic patients with advanced DKD with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) between 30 and 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) of 300-5000 mg/g. We classified patients into 2 groups according to their 1-year average HbA1c: <7% and >7%. We followed up the patients until the occurrence of primary renal endpoints. RESULTS: A total of 345 patients were included in the analysis for the period 2012-2018. Mean baseline eGFR was 58 ml/min/1.73 m2 and mean albuminuria levels were 1146 and 1313 mg/g, respectively. Median study duration was 3 years. The risk of primary renal endpoints was not decreased in patients with HbA1c less than 7% with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 0.62, 95% CI 0.26-1.45. The risks of persistent eGFR lower than 15 ml/min/1.73 m2 and doubling of serum creatinine level were similar between 2 group with aHR of 0.58 (95% CI 0.19-1.83) and 0.61 (95% CI 0.26-1.44), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive blood sugar control did not prevent renal failure in advanced DKD.

Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events after Treatment in Early-stage Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Hormone Therapy.

This nationwide population-based study investigated the differences in the risks of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) among patients with hormone receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer undergoing different combinations of adjuvant treatments in Taiwan. Data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) and Taiwan Cancer Registry (TCR) along with the national mortality data were used. Patients who underwent surgery as the first mode of treatment were divided into four groups based on the subsequent adjuvant therapy received: hormone therapy (H), hormone therapy + chemotherapy (CH), hormone therapy + radiotherapy (RH), and hormone therapy + radiotherapy + chemotherapy (CRH) groups. The risks of fatal and nonfatal MACE among the groups were examined using the inverse probability of treatment weighted hazard ratio (IPTW-HR). Adjuvant treatment, age, tumour size, and comorbidities significantly affected the risks of MACEs among the 19,007 patients analysed. For nonfatal MACEs, the IPTW-HR was significantly lower in the CH group compare to the H group (0.704, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.516-0.961). No significant differences in the risks for fatal MACE were observed among the four groups. The IPTW-HRs for haemorrhagic stroke in the CH group was 0.424 (95% CI: 0.188-0.957), for congestive heart failure (CHF) in the RH group was 0.260 (95% CI: 0.088-0.762), and for ischaemic heart disease in the CRH group was 0.544 (95% CI: 0.317-0.934). Increase in the adjuvant modality does not necessarily increase the nonfatal or fatal MACE risks. Cardiac health should be monitored even in patients receiving hormone therapy alone.

The Risk of Thyroid Cancer in Patients with Thyroid Nodule 3 Cm Or Larger.

OBJECTIVE: There are conflicting data on the risk of thyroid cancer in thyroid nodules 3 cm or larger, and few such studies on this issue have been conducted in Asia. This study aimed to examine the risk of thyroid cancer in patients with thyroid nodules 3 cm or larger. METHODS: This was a 7-year retrospective study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital in Taiwan. All patients with a thyroid nodule measuring ≥3 cm who underwent thyroid operation with or without fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) were included. The prevalence rate of thyroid cancer, as well as the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and false-negative rate of FNAB for thyroid nodule ≥3 cm were also examined. RESULTS: A total of 132 patients were included in this study. Thyroid cancer was detected in 19 of 132 (14.4%) thyroid nodules measuring ≥3 cm. The performance of FNAB for detecting cancer in nodules 3 cm or larger without considering other ultrasonography parameters was relatively poor with a sensitivity of 50%, but the specificity (100%), PPV (100 %), and NPV (93.4 %) were excellent. CONCLUSION: The risk of thyroid cancer for thyroid nodules ≥3 cm in this study was low. The PPV and NPV of FNAB were high for the detection of cancer in large nodules. The decision to perform thyroidectomy should not be solely based on nodule size and should include other factors, such as ultrasound characteristics and surgical risk.