Detection of pancreatic cancer with two- and three-dimensional radiomic analysis in a nationwide population-based real-world dataset.

BACKGROUND: CT is the major detection tool for pancreatic cancer (PC). However, approximately 40% of PCs < 2 cm are missed on CT, underscoring a pressing need for tools to supplement radiologist interpretation. METHODS: Contrast-enhanced CT studies of 546 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma diagnosed by histology/cytology between January 2005 and December 2019 and 733 CT studies of controls with normal pancreas obtained between the same period in a tertiary referral center were retrospectively collected for developing an automatic end-to-end computer-aided detection (CAD) tool for PC using two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) radiomic analysis with machine learning. The CAD tool was tested in a nationwide dataset comprising 1,477 CT studies (671 PCs, 806 controls) obtained from institutions throughout Taiwan. RESULTS: The CAD tool achieved 0.918 (95% CI, 0.895-0.938) sensitivity and 0.822 (95% CI, 0.794-0.848) specificity in differentiating between studies with and without PC (area under curve 0.947, 95% CI, 0.936-0.958), with 0.707 (95% CI, 0.602-0.797) sensitivity for tumors < 2 cm. The positive and negative likelihood ratios of PC were 5.17 (95% CI, 4.45-6.01) and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.08-0.13), respectively. Where high specificity is needed, using 2D and 3D analyses in series yielded 0.952 (95% CI, 0.934-0.965) specificity with a sensitivity of 0.742 (95% CI, 0.707-0.775), whereas using 2D and 3D analyses in parallel to maximize sensitivity yielded 0.915 (95% CI, 0.891-0.935) sensitivity at a specificity of 0.791 (95% CI, 0.762-0.819). CONCLUSIONS: The high accuracy and robustness of the CAD tool supported its potential for enhancing the detection of PC.

Pancreatic Cancer Detection on CT Scans with Deep Learning: A Nationwide Population-based Study.

Background Approximately 40% of pancreatic tumors smaller than 2 cm are missed at abdominal CT. Purpose To develop and to validate a deep learning (DL)-based tool able to detect pancreatic cancer at CT. Materials and Methods Retrospectively collected contrast-enhanced CT studies in patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between January 2006 and July 2018 were compared with CT studies of individuals with a normal pancreas (control group) obtained between January 2004 and December 2019. An end-to-end tool comprising a segmentation convolutional neural network (CNN) and a classifier ensembling five CNNs was developed and validated in the internal test set and a nationwide real-world validation set. The sensitivities of the computer-aided detection (CAD) tool and radiologist interpretation were compared using the McNemar test. Results A total of 546 patients with pancreatic cancer (mean age, 65 years ± 12 [SD], 297 men) and 733 control subjects were randomly divided into training, validation, and test sets. In the internal test set, the DL tool achieved 89.9% (98 of 109; 95% CI: 82.7, 94.9) sensitivity and 95.9% (141 of 147; 95% CI: 91.3, 98.5) specificity (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC], 0.96; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.99), without a significant difference (P = .11) in sensitivity compared with the original radiologist report (96.1% [98 of 102]; 95% CI: 90.3, 98.9). In a test set of 1473 real-world CT studies (669 malignant, 804 control) from institutions throughout Taiwan, the DL tool distinguished between CT malignant and control studies with 89.7% (600 of 669; 95% CI: 87.1, 91.9) sensitivity and 92.8% specificity (746 of 804; 95% CI: 90.8, 94.5) (AUC, 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.96), with 74.7% (68 of 91; 95% CI: 64.5, 83.3) sensitivity for malignancies smaller than 2 cm. Conclusion The deep learning-based tool enabled accurate detection of pancreatic cancer on CT scans, with reasonable sensitivity for tumors smaller than 2 cm. © RSNA, 2022 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Aisen and Rodrigues in this issue.

Removing anonymity protection and utilization review decisions: a real-world case under a single-payer health system.

The effects of anonymity on utilization review has never been examined in the real world. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of removing anonymity protection for claims reviewers on their review decisions. Using a single-blinded repeated measures design, we randomly selected 1457 claims cases (with 12,237 orders) that had been anonymously reviewed and reimbursed in 2016 and had them re-reviewed in a signed review program in 2017 under the Taiwanese National Health Insurance scheme. The signed review policy significantly decreased the likelihood of a deduction decision at the case and the order level (P < 0.001). Furthermore, signed reviewers tended to make more "too lenient" decisions, and were less likely to make "too harsh" decisions. Removing anonymity protection dramatically reduced the deduction rate and overturned the tendency of decisions from "too harsh" to "too lenient". However, whether to maintain the anonymity of utilization reviews is a challenge for health authorities around the globe.

The reimbursement coverage decisions and pricing rules for medical devices in Taiwan.

Medical technology is undergoing rapid transformations, and the classifications of medical devices have also expanded greatly; therefore, it is necessary to develop appropriate reimbursement policies and pricing mechanisms in a timely manner. This paper aims to introduce the reimbursement coverage and pricing rules for medical devices in Taiwan. In addition, this paper identifies and evaluates available health technology assessments (HTA) and literature on published websites concerning medical device decision-making processes and pricing systems in South Korea and Japan, which are near Taiwan and have similar reimbursement coverage processes. Reimbursement policy and pricing mechanisms are constantly being revised in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Recently, all three countries attempted to establish new reimbursement coverage decision-making and pricing rules, adopting a differentiated approach based on the level of evidence required for the appropriated reimbursement in terms of a feasible evaluation mechanism for providing patients with more effective medical devices. This article is expected to contribute to providing references to new reimbursement coverage decision-making and pricing rules.

Effectiveness of Image-Guided Radiotherapy in Adjuvant Radiotherapy on Survival for Localized Breast Cancer: A Population-Based Analysis.

PURPOSE: Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) is an advanced radiotherapy technique to improve the radiotherapy delivery. We aimed to compare the overall survival (OS) for localized breast cancer (LBC) patient treated with adjuvant conventional fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT) using IGRT vs those without IGRT via a population-based analysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eligible LBC patients diagnosed between 2011 and 2013 were identified via the Taiwan Cancer Registry. We used propensity score (PS) weighting to balance observable potential confounders between groups. The hazard ratio (HR) of death and other outcomes were compared between IGRT and non-IGRT. We also evaluated OS in various supplementary analyses. RESULTS: Our primary analysis included 6490 patients in whom covariates were well balanced after PS weighing. The HR for death when IGRT was compared with non-IGRT was 1.02 (95% confidence interval 0.80-1.31, P = 0.86). There were also no significant differences in the supplementary analyses. CONCLUSION: We found that OS of LBC patients treated with adjuvant CFRT was not statistically different between those treated with IGRT versus without IGRT. This was the first study in this regard to our knowledge but randomized controlled trials were needed to confirm our finding.

Existing Data Sources in Clinical Epidemiology: The Taiwan National Health Insurance Laboratory Databases.

This paper provides an introduction to laboratory databases established by Taiwan National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) since 2015 and released for research since June 2017. The National Health Insurance (NHI) is a government-run single-payer program introduced in 1995 that now covers more than 99% of 23 million Taiwanese citizens. To prevent duplication of medication prescriptions and laboratory test and examination prescriptions, contracted health care providers are required to upload the results of laboratory tests and reports of examinations to the NHIA. The cumulative number of laboratory test results was 5.64 billion from January 2015 to the end of August 2020 for 602 types of test. There are 35 variables for each laboratory test result stored in the databases that can be used for research. However, different hospitals might use different format in reporting the results. The researchers therefore have to develop algorithms to include and exclude incompatible records and to determine whether the results are positive or negative (normal or abnormal). The NHIA suggests that researchers release their source codes of algorithms so that other researchers can modify the codes to improve inter-study comparability. Through the unique personal identification number, the laboratory data can be linked to NHI inpatient and outpatient claims data for further value-added analyses. Non-Taiwanese researchers can collaborate with Taiwan researchers to access the NHI laboratory databases.

The epidemiological profile of chronic hepatitis C with advanced hepatic fibrosis regarding virus genotype in Taiwan: A nationwide study.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: This study aims at investigating the epidemiological profile of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) regarding hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype in Taiwan. METHODS: A total of 29,087 CHC patients with advanced fibrosis who received direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy under Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) during 2017-2018 were recruited. The HCV genotype distribution and its association with patients' demographic factors including age, gender, and geographical areas were examined. RESULTS: The most common genotypes were 1b (59.5%) and 2 (30.1%) with characteristics of older age (mean ± standard deviation (SD): 66.5 ± 10.7 years and 67.3 ± 10.9 years) and female gender predominant (57.1% and 59.4%), which were associated with iatrogenic infection decades ago. Most of patients with genotype 1a (5.9%) and 6 (3.7%) infection were relatively younger (59.2 ± 12.0 years and 60.0 ± 13.8 years) and male gender predominant (59.1% and 61.1%), except Liujia and Liuying districts in southern Taiwan. The youngest group (53.2 ± 11.8 years) and most male gender predominant (74.3%) was genotype 3 (0.37%). These genotypes with characteristics of being younger and male gender predominant were highly related to injection drug use in recent years. The number of genotype 4 patients were extremely rare (n = 25) and efficacy of genotype-4-specific-DAA was significantly poorer than non-genotype-4-specific DAA (P value = 0.0411). CONCLUSION: The significant differences in demographic characteristics among CHC patients with different HCV genotypes found in this study suggest HCV genotype was highly associated with transmission pattern and may be used as a reference for HCV control.

Containing COVID-19 Among 627,386 Persons in Contact With the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship Passengers Who Disembarked in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics.

BACKGROUND: Low infection and case-fatality rates have been thus far observed in Taiwan. One of the reasons for this major success is better use of big data analytics in efficient contact tracing and management and surveillance of those who require quarantine and isolation. OBJECTIVE: We present here a unique application of big data analytics among Taiwanese people who had contact with more than 3000 passengers that disembarked at Keelung harbor in Taiwan for a 1-day tour on January 31, 2020, 5 days before the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess cruise ship on February 5, 2020, after an index case was identified on January 20, 2020. METHODS: The smart contact tracing-based mobile sensor data, cross-validated by other big sensor surveillance data, were analyzed by the mobile geopositioning method and rapid analysis to identify 627,386 potential contact-persons. Information on self-monitoring and self-quarantine was provided via SMS, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests were offered for symptomatic contacts. National Health Insurance claims big data were linked, to follow-up on the outcome related to COVID-19 among those who were hospitalized due to pneumonia and advised to undergo screening for SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: As of February 29, a total of 67 contacts who were tested by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were all negative and no confirmed COVID-19 cases were found. Less cases of respiratory syndrome and pneumonia were found after the follow-up of the contact population compared with the general population until March 10, 2020. CONCLUSIONS: Big data analytics with smart contact tracing, automated alert messaging for self-restriction, and follow-up of the outcome related to COVID-19 using health insurance data could curtail the resources required for conventional epidemiological contact tracing.

Effects of Chinese and Western Medicine on Patients with Dengue Fever.

Dengue fever is an important epidemic disease with a high prevalence in tropical and subtropical countries. We aimed to investigate the effects of a treatment integrating traditional Chinese (TCM) and Western medicines on dengue inpatients with warning signs (i.e., group B) according to the World Health Organization dengue classification in this retrospective cohort study of medical records. Inpatients who were treated with conventional Western therapies in the absence or presence of TCM were assigned to the control and treatment groups, respectively. Data were compared using an analysis of variance, general linear analysis, and chi-square test. The most common clinical symptoms and signs of dengue fever were fever and muscle ache. The treatment group patients were significantly more likely to present general weakness and poor appetite than the control group patients. Patients in the treatment group were more likely to experience stomachache than those in the control group. Moreover, comparisons of the changes in hemoglobin and alanine aminotransferase levels over time revealed significant differences between the patient groups. Zhu Ye Shi Gao Tang, Gui Pi Tang, Paeonia suffruticosa, and Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum were the most commonly administered TCM formula and single herbs in this study. Patients in the treatment group experienced a resolution of symptoms, signs, and laboratory data and were discharged smoothly, without deterioration to death or critical care. Our findings suggest that the integration of TCM and Western medicine may yield an appropriate treatment for dengue fever.

Dural Arteriovenous Fistula With Sinus Thrombosis and Venous Reflux Presenting as Parkinsonism: A Case Report.

The occurrence of dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) is rare. The clinical manifestation varies and depends on the location and venous drainage pattern. We present a case of a 57-year-old man with a left transverse sinus DAVF along with sigmoid thrombosis, cortical venous reflux, and congestion, that initially presented as parkinsonism. The patient was alert and fully oriented; however, decreased facial expressions were noted. His left forearm showed rigidity and bradykinesia, and it was difficult for the patient to smoothly perform rapid alternating movement testing. His complaints about hearing a rhythmic bruit above the left ear, particularly when lying down, alerted the physician of the presence of vascular lesions. Magnetic resonance imaging and angiography confirmed the diagnosis of DAVF. The patient received a combined surgical and endovascular approach to permanently block the fistula blood flow. The motion and movement of his left upper limb improved after fistula embolization. Images at the 1-month follow-up showed a decrease in the volume of tortuous vessels, and the fistula was completely occluded.

Tamoxifen use correlates with increased risk of hip fractures in older women with breast cancer: A case-control study in Taiwan.

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the association between tamoxifen use and hip fractures in older women with breast cancer in Taiwan. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective nationwide case-control study using the database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. A total of 762 female patients with breast cancer aged ≥65 years newly diagnosed with hip fractures from 2000 to 2011 were identified for inclusion in the study. Additionally, 7620 female patients with breast cancer aged ≥65 years without hip fractures were randomly selected as controls. Patients were defined as having used tamoxifen if they had an existing prescription for tamoxifen before the index date. Patients were defined as having never used tamoxifen if they had never been given a prescription for tamoxifen before the index date. We used an unconditional logistic regression model to calculate the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval for the association between tamoxifen use and risk of hip fractures. RESULTS: After adjustment for confounding variables, compared with patients who did not use tamoxifen, the adjusted odds ratio of hip fracture was 2.29 for those who had used tamoxifen (95% confidence interval 1.92, 2.72). Furthermore, adjusted odds ratios were 2.74 (95% confidence interval 2.19, 3.42) among patients with a cumulative duration of tamoxifen use of >3 years. CONCLUSION: Tamoxifen use is associated with increased risk of hip fractures among older women with breast cancer in Taiwan. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 56-60.

Using proton pump inhibitors correlates with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease: a nationwide database-derived case-controlled study.

Background: Those taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) might have a higher risk of acute kidney injury. The long-term safety, especially the PPI-associated chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the subsequent concern. Objective: This study explores the potential relationship between using PPIs and CKD in Taiwan. Methods: Using a database collated by the Taiwan National Health Insurance programme, we conducted a population-based case-controlled study to identify 16 704 cases of patients aged 20 years or older with newly diagnosed CKD between 2000 and 2013. 16 704 controls were randomly selected and were matched by sex, age and comorbidities. 'Use' of PPIs was defined as when subjects had received at least a prescription for PPIs before the index date. 'Non-use' was defined as subjects who had never received a prescription for PPIs before the index date. The odds ratio (OR) for CKD associated with the use of PPIs was estimated by a logistic regression model. Results: The OR for CKD was 1.41 for subjects using PPIs [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.34, 1.48] compared with subjects who had never used PPIs. Almost all major types of PPIs present a weak association with increased odds of CKD in cumulative duration and dosage regression analysis. The OR in relation to cumulative duration (per month) of PPIs use was 1.02 (95% CI 1.01, 1.02) and the OR in relation to cumulative dosage (per microgram) of PPIs use was 1.23 (95% CI 1.18, 1.28). Conclusions: Using PPIs presented 1.4-fold higher odds of CKD in Taiwan health insurance claims data analysis.

Cutaneous alternariosis in a renal transplant recipient: a case report and literature review.

Organ transplant recipients under immunosuppressive therapy have a highly increased risk of acquiring unusual opportunistic infections. Diagnosis of the etiology of infection may be difficult in clinical manifestations, which need further histological and biological investigations. We recently treated a male renal transplant recipient with a cutaneous phaeohyphomycosis due to Alternaria species. The diagnosis was based on microscopy and culture of the skin lesions. Treatment with oral itraconazole for 5 weeks was ineffective, then clinical improvement was achieved by combination of amphotericin B wet-packing and systemic antifungal therapy with oral voriconazole. Alternaria species are ubiquitous plant-inhabiting saprobes, which are increasingly associated with opportunistic phaeohyphomycosis in immunocompromised individuals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second case report noting sporotrichoid pattern as the manifestation of cutaneous alternariosis. In this context, we reviewed recent renal-transplant-related cutaneous alternariosis reported in the English-language literature during 1995 to 2011 to summarize its clinical features and outcomes, and to guide clinicians in the care of kidney transplant patients with cutaneous alternariosis.