Effects of sex, tobacco smoking, and alcohol consumption osteoporosis development: Evidence from Taiwan biobank participants.

INTRODUCTION: Osteoporosis is major public health concern, but the long-term impacts of tobacco and alcohol consumption on its development are unclear. This study analyzed the relationship between tobacco and alcohol use and osteoporosis by using data from the Taiwan Biobank (TWB), established in 2012. METHODS: Participants in TWB were included in our study, with a total of 18394 respondents included for analysis. To investigate the relationship between tobacco and alcohol use and osteoporosis, we surveyed their bone mineral density (BMD), consumption of tobacco and alcohol and other covariate data. RESULTS: We found that participants in the tobacco smoking only group (OR=1.24; 95% CI: 1.08-1.42, p=0.003) and the group that both smoked and consumed alcohol (OR=1.39; 95% CI: 1.09-1.77, p=0.008) were more likely to develop osteoporosis than were participants who neither drank alcohol nor smoked. Menopause is strongly associated with osteoporosis in women, and we found that women who used alcohol or tobacco were not at a significantly higher risk than those in the reference group (tobacco only, OR=1.15; 95% CI: 0.86-1.53, p=0.345; both tobacco and alcohol, OR=0.61; 95% CI: 0.14-2.60, p=0.5040). However, men in these groups were at a significantly higher risk than the reference group (tobacco only, OR=1.26; 95% CI: 1.07-1.48, p=0.006; both tobacco and alcohol, OR=1.32; 95% CI: 1.03-1.70, p=0.030). Menopause was a significant risk factor for osteoporosis (OR=2.46; 95% CI: 1.77-3.41, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The influence of tobacco use on osteoporosis was significant, particularly in men, but the effects of alcohol consumption were equivocal in our study. The interactions between tobacco use, alcohol use, and menopausal status on osteoporosis should be considered in future studies.

Association between intrauterine growth restriction and patent ductus arteriosus: Use of a dichorionic twin pregnancy model.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and the incidence of fetuses with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and Hemodynamically significant PDA (Hs-PDA) in dichorionic twins (DC) with selective IUGR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an observational cohort study and retrospective case assessment, involved twins born at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan between 2013 and 2018. DC twins with selective IUGR (sIUGR) were defined as the presence of a birth weight discordance of >25% and a smaller twin with a birth weight below the tenth percentile. PDA was diagnosed using echocardiography between postnatal day 3 and 7. Hs-PDA was defined as PDA plus increased pulmonary circulation, poor systemic perfusion, cardiomegaly, pulmonary edema, or hypotension requiring pharmacotherapeutic intervention. RESULT: A total of 1187 twins were delivered during the study period, and 53 DC twins with selective IUGR were included in this study. DC twins with PDA have higher rate of preterm birth, lower gestational age of delivery, and lower mean birth weight of both twins compared with DC twins without PDA. In a comparison of the sIUGR twin with the appropriate for gestational age co-twin, both the incidences of PDA (28.30% vs. 7.55%, respectively; P = 0.003) and Hs-PDA (24.53% vs. 5.66%, respectively; P = 0.002) were higher in sIUGR fetuses than in the appropriate for gestational age co-twins. Small gestational age of delivery was the only variable to predict PDA and Hs-PDA [p = 0.002, Odds ratio = 0.57 (0.39-0.82), p = 0.009, Odds ratio = 0.71 (0.55-0.92), respectively]. CONCLUSION: An analysis of dichorionic twins with sIUGR indicated that IUGR increased the risk of PDA and hemodynamically significant PDA.

Interstitial ectopic pregnancy: A more confident diagnosis with three-dimensional sonography.

OBJECTIVE: To present a confident tool for the diagnosis of interstitial ectopic pregnancy. 3-Dimensional US helps to reach a more proper diagnosis and enables to arrange therapeutic and surgical strategies. CASE REPORT: A 36-year-old, gravida 4 para 2, woman was referred from the local medical department in the suspicion of ectopic pregnancy. Transabdominal ultrasound revealed an empty uterine cavity but an 8-week-old gestational sac located eccentrically on the right side of the uterine fundus. The Three-dimensional sonography (3D US) demonstrated a gestational sac (GS) over the right cornual region separated from the endometrial cavity. Interstitial pregnancy was impressed. Laparoscopic surgery was then arranged. After entering the pelvic cavity, a bulging mass was found over the utero-tubal junction, compatible with interstitial pregnancy. The wedge resection of interstitial ectopic pregnancy and right salpingectomy were undertaken. The patient was discharged within 2 days after the surgery. CONCLUSION: The conventional sonography still remained the primary tool to diagnose the ectopic pregnancy, but 3D US played an indispensable role in demonstrating the precise location of GS. Interstitial ectopic pregnancy was symptomatically late in gestation and rupture of an interstitial pregnancy causes catastrophic consequence due to massive bleeding, so prompt and accurate diagnosis was definitely life-saving. Appropriate therapy or surgical intervention could be arranged.

1p deletion syndrome: A prenatal diagnosis characterized by an abnormal 1st trimester combined screening test, yet a normal NIPT result.

OBJECTIVE: To present a case with prenatal diagnosis and cytogenetic characterization of 1p36 deletion syndrome whose first trimester combined testing is abnormal but a normal NIPT result. CASE REPORT: A 33-year-old had an abnormal 1st trimester fetal aneuploidy screening result, but no trisomies 13, 18, 21 were detected by the noninvasive prenatal testing. Amniocentesis was performed after ultrasound showed fetal ventriculomegaly and echogenic bowel. The final conventional cytogenetics revealed a karyotype of 46, XX, del(1)(p36). CONCLUSION: Every prenatal genetic screening test and diagnostic procedure has its benefit and risk. NIPT offers better sensitivity and specificity for trisomies 13, 18, and 21. Even so, for primary population screening, NIPT provides lower detection rate than sequential screening if considering detection of all chromosomal abnormalities. Diagnostic testing should be offered rather than cell-free DNA screening to pregnant women if a fetal structural anomaly is identified on ultrasound examination.

Everyday memory problems in alcohol abuse and dependence: Frequency, patterns and patient-proxy agreement.

Using self-report to assess everyday memory in alcoholics presents challenges given the presence of both memory and metamemory deficits. Accordingly, evaluation of the reliability and validity of proxy ratings as well as the frequency of these memory lapses are of clinical importance. In the present study, 180 patient-proxy dyads completed the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). 31.7% of proxy-rated versus 2.8% of patient-rated prospective memory scores fell in the impaired to below average range. 15% of proxy-rated retrospective memory scores were below average, whereas none of the patients reported problems in this regard. Longer delays between intention formation and action yielded better prospective memory performance, while the opposite was true for retrospective memory. Agreement between patients and proxies was generally poor to fair across severity levels and the magnitude of observed differences was large (standardized response mean > 0.8). For all PRMQ items, exact agreement occurred in 45.3% of the cases. Larger patient-proxy discrepancy was associated with older age, less education and greater disease severity. Proxy ratings were internally consistent, significantly correlated with objective memory performance, and were sensitive to differences in overall PRMQ performance between severity groups. Caution should be used in the interpretations of patients' reports.

Post-lithography pattern modification and its application to a tunable wire grid polarizer.

This study reports a simple and cost-effective post-lithography solution for reducing the characteristic dimensions of structures on the nanometer scale using an external mechanical force without any modification of the existing exposure system. In particular, this study presents a tunable aluminum wire grid polarizer (WGP) made by a laser interference lithography and i-line (365 nm) exposure setup on polyethylene naphthalate. The WGP achieves a 58% maximum linewidth shrinkage of the metal nanowire on the polymer substrate, and further improved the polarization extinction ratio by 83% with a defined operation window and optimized strain. The simulations in this study prove the rise of the extinction ratio with the modulation of the WGP pattern. Physical evidence explains the fall of the extinction ratio for both the increase of the metal crack volume and the delaminated randomly oriented fall-on fragments under extensive operation.