Development of a Machine Learning Algorithm to Correlate Lumbar Disc Height on X-rays with Disc Bulging or Herniation.

Lumbar disc bulging or herniation (LDBH) is one of the major causes of spinal stenosis and related nerve compression, and its severity is the major determinant for spine surgery. MRI of the spine is the most important diagnostic tool for evaluating the need for surgical intervention in patients with LDBH. However, MRI utilization is limited by its low accessibility. Spinal X-rays can rapidly provide information on the bony structure of the patient. Our study aimed to identify the factors associated with LDBH, including disc height, and establish a clinical diagnostic tool to support its diagnosis based on lumbar X-ray findings. In this study, a total of 458 patients were used for analysis and 13 clinical and imaging variables were collected. Five machine-learning (ML) methods, including LASSO regression, MARS, decision tree, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting, were applied and integrated to identify important variables for predicting LDBH from lumbar spine X-rays. The results showed L4-5 posterior disc height, age, and L1-2 anterior disc height to be the top predictors, and a decision tree algorithm was constructed to support clinical decision-making. Our study highlights the potential of ML-based decision tools for surgeons and emphasizes the importance of L1-2 disc height in relation to LDBH. Future research will expand on these findings to develop a more comprehensive decision-supporting model.

Prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Using Home Sleep Test in Taiwan During the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common disorder associated with serious sequelae. The current gold standard diagnostic method, polysomnography, is costly and time consuming and requires patients to stay overnight at a facility. Aim: This study aimed to reveal the prevalence of OSAS in general adult population using a home sleep test (HST) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted by the Department of Otolaryngology, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, between January 2020 and December 2021. A total of 1372 patients aged 30-70 years completed an HST using a Type 3 portable sleep monitor (PM). The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was analyzed to assess the association of OSAS with age, body mass index (BMI), sex, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and the Sleep Apnea Risk Assessment questionnaire (STOP-Bang questionnaire) rating. Results: The mean age of the patients (782 men, 57%; 590 women, 43%) was 49.24 ± 11.04 years. OSAS was detected in 954 (69.5%) patients with 399 (29.1%) mild OSAS; 246 (17.9%) moderate OSAS; and 309 (22.5%) severe OSAS. Among these, the prevalence of moderate-to-severe OSAS was 143 (10.4%) in women and 412 (30.0%) in men. The mean age was the highest (51.29 ± 11.29) in the mild OSAS group and lowest (47.08 ± 10.87) in the healthy group. OSAS severity was greater with increasing BMI, 23.39 ± 3.44 in the healthy group and 29.29 ± 5.01 in the severe OSAS group. A positive correlation was also noted between the ESS/STOP-Bang questionnaire rating and OSAS severity. Conclusion: The prevalence of OSAS in Taiwan was 69.5% in our study. It showed strong evidence that OSAS has important public health consequences and PMs are simple, fast, feasible, and cost-effective tools for OSAS screening in the home environment, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improving Patient Safety in the X-ray Inspection Process with EfficientNet-Based Medical Assistance System.

Patient safety is a paramount concern in the medical field, and advancements in deep learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have opened up new possibilities for improving healthcare practices. While AI has shown promise in assisting doctors with early symptom detection from medical images, there is a critical need to prioritize patient safety by enhancing existing processes. To enhance patient safety, this study focuses on improving the medical operation process during X-ray examinations. In this study, we utilize EfficientNet for classifying the 49 categories of pre-X-ray images. To enhance the accuracy even further, we introduce two novel Neural Network architectures. The classification results are then compared with the doctor's order to ensure consistency and minimize discrepancies. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed models, a comprehensive dataset comprising 49 different categories and over 12,000 training and testing sheets was collected from Taichung Veterans General Hospital. The research demonstrates a significant improvement in accuracy, surpassing a 4% enhancement compared to previous studies.

Varicose veins are associated with an increased risk of mitral valve regurgitation: a nationwide population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Varicose veins (VV) and mitral valve regurgitation (MR) are both common diseases. The aim was to investigate whether VV are associated with an increased risk of MR. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide cohort study to assess the association between VV and risk of developing MR. Drawn from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), the records of 56,898 patients with VV (the VV cohort) and 56,898 propensity score-matched patients without VV (the non-VV cohort) in the years 2007 to 2015 were identified. Follow-up duration was calculated from the date of entry in the cohort until the occurrence of a first MR diagnosis, death, or the end of the observation period (December 31, 2015), whichever occurred first. Hazard ratios (HRs) and accompanying 95% confidence intervals (CIs) derived from the Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the association between VV and MR risks. RESULTS: After multivariable adjustment, VV was associated with an increased risk of MR (adjusted HR, 1.63; 95% CI: 1.52-1.74). Notably, significant associations between VV and MR risk were evident in both genders and in all age groups. A trend of significant increase of MR risk was also observed with increasing frequency of annual clinical visits for VV. Within the VV cohort, the subgroup of MR presence had higher incidences of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, valve-related surgeries, and mortality (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This population-based cohort study revealed that VV was associated with an increased risk of MR in a Taiwanese population. Vigilance of MR existence should be emphasized in patients of VV due to its potentially poor long-term outcomes.

Identifying the predictors of severe psychological distress by auto-machine learning methods.

Social stress in daily life and the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly impacted the mental health of the population. Early detection of a predisposition to severe psychological distress is essential for timely interventions. This paper analyzed 4036 samples participating in the 2019-2020 National Health Information Trends Survey (HINTS) and identified 57 candidate predictors of severe psychological distress based on univariate chi-square and t-test analyses. Five machine learning methods, namely logistic regression (LR), automatic generalized linear models (Auto-GLM), automatic random forests (Auto-Random Forests), automatic deep neural networks (Auto-Deep learning) and automatic gradient boosting machines (Auto-GBM), were employed to model synthetic minority oversampling technique-based (SMOTE) resampled data and identify predictors of severe psychological distress. Predictors were evaluated by odds ratios in logistic models and variable importance in the other models. Forty-seven variables were identified as significant predictors of severe psychological distress, including 13 sociodemographic variables and 34 variables related to individual lifestyle and behavioral habits. Among them, new potentially relevant variables related to an individual's level of concern and trust in cancer information, exposure to health care providers, and cancer screening and awareness are included. The performance of each model was evaluated using five-fold cross-validation. The optimal model performance-wise was Auto-GBM with an accuracy of 89.75%, a precision of 89.68%, a recall of 89.31%, an F1-score of 89.48% and an AUC of 95.57%. Significant predictors of severe psychological distress were identified in this study and the value of machine learning methods in predicting severe psychological distress is demonstrated, thereby enhancing pre-prediction and clinical decision-making of severe psychological distress problems.

Comparison of medical resource consumption between oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma with and without sarcopenia: A nationwide population-based cohort study.

PURPOSE: No study has compared long-term medical resource consumption between patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) with and without sarcopenia receiving curative surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Generalized linear mixed and logistic regression models were employed to evaluate the number of postoperative visits and medical reimbursement for head and neck cancer or complications and the number of hospitalizations for treatment-related complications over 5 years after curative surgery, respectively. RESULTS: The mean difference (95% CI) in total medical claims amounts between the nonsarcopenia and sarcopenia groups were new Taiwan dollars (NTD) 47 820 (35 864-59 776, p < 0.0001), 11 902 (4897-18 908, p = 0.0009), 17 282 (10 666-23 898, p < 0.0001), 17 364 (9644-25 084, p < 0.0001), and 8236 (111-16 362, p = 0.0470) for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth years, respectively. CONCLUSION: The long-term medical resource consumption was higher in the sarcopenia group than in the nonsarcopenia group.

The Impact of Sarcopenia Onset Prior to Cancer Diagnosis on Cancer Survival: A National Population-Based Cohort Study Using Propensity Score Matching.

PURPOSE: The relationship between the onset of sarcopenia prior to cancer diagnosis and survival outcomes in various types of cancer is not well understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we conducted a propensity score-matched population-based cohort study to compare the overall survival of cancer patients with and without sarcopenia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In our study, we included patients with cancer and divided them into two groups based on the presence or absence of sarcopenia. To ensure comparability between the groups, we matched patients in both groups at a ratio of 1:1. RESULTS: After the matching process, our final cohort included 20,416 patients with cancer (10,208 in each group) who were eligible for further analysis. There were no significant differences between the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups in terms of confounding factors such as age (mean 61.05 years versus 62.17 years), gender (52.56% versus 52.16% male, 47.44% versus 47.84% female), comorbidities, and cancer stages. In our multivariate Cox regression analysis, we found that the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR; 95% confidence interval [CI]) of all-cause death for the sarcopenia group compared to the nonsarcopenia group was 1.49 (1.43-1.55; p < 0.001). Additionally, the aHRs (95% CIs) of all-cause death for those aged 66-75, 76-85, and >85 years (compared to those aged ≤65 years) were 1.29 (1.23-1.36), 2.00 (1.89-2.12), and 3.26 (2.97-3.59), respectively. The aHR (95% CI) of all-cause death for those with a Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) ≥ 1 compared to those with a CCI of 0 was 1.34 (1.28-1.40). The aHR (95% CI) of all-cause death for men compared to women was 1.56 (1.50-1.62). When comparing the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups, the aHRs (95% CIs) for lung, liver, colorectal, breast, prostate, oral, pancreatic, stomach, ovarian, and other cancers were significantly higher. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the onset of sarcopenia prior to cancer diagnosis may be linked to reduced survival outcomes in cancer patients.

The Association of Preoperative PET-CT and Survival in Patients with Resectable Cervical Cancer.

PURPOSE: No randomized study with a long-term follow-up has investigated the effect of pretreatment 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (18FDG-PET-CT) on the survival of patients with stage IB-IIA cervical cancer receiving curative surgery. Therefore, in this propensity score-matched, population-based cohort study, we investigated the effect of preoperative 18FDG-PET-CT on the survival outcomes of patients with potentially resectable cervical cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included 2550 patients with stage IB-IIA cervical cancer receiving curative surgery with complete data on clinical stages. The patients were categorized into two 1:4 propensity, score-matched groups depending on whether they underwent pretreatment 18FDG-PET-CT, and their outcomes were compared. RESULTS: We included 2030 and 520 patients with cervical cancer in the non-pretreatment and pretreatment PET-CT groups, respectively. Multivariable analyses revealed that the most prominent correlation between preoperative PET-CT and all-cause death was observed in the patients with stage IB-IIA cervical cancer receiving surgery (aHR [95% CI]: 1.16 [0.83-1.63]; p = 0.3752). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative 18FDG-PET-CT was not associated with longer survival in the patients with clinical stage IB-IIA cervical cancer receiving curative surgery.

Advance Care Planning Among Adult Patients and Their End-of-Life Care Preferences.

To explore people's intentions to opt for a good death when planning for their end-of-life care, this study examined the type of end-of-life care preferred by patients receiving advance care planning (ACP) consulting services for five specified clinical and disability conditions and possible factors affecting their decision-making. This cross-sectional study analyzed 1303 hospital patients and 1032 nonhospital patients who attended a clinic providing ACP consulting services. This study revealed the following two results. First, patients who were older, were female, did not have an appointed surrogate decision-maker, and were nonhospital patients had a higher intention of not receiving life-sustaining treatments (LST) or artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) under the five specified clinical and disability conditions. Second, people who were the least willing to receive LST or ANH under the following conditions (in descending order): permanent vegetative state, severe dementia, irreversible coma, other disease conditions recognized by the central competent authority, and end-of-life stage.

Metformin, Statin Use, and Female Colorectal Cancer: A Population-Based Cohort Study in Taiwan.

In the last few years, the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in women has gradually increased. However, epidemiological studies on the relationship between type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and female CRC and the effect of metformin or statins on female CRC are insufficient. To determine their association, we conducted a population-based cohort study on women in Taiwan. We collected data on a total of 396,521 women aged 40 to 64 years old from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2009 from the National Health Insurance Research Database. We followed up on all participants in the cohort until the occurrence of CRC, the date for all death, or 31 December 2015. Full development of CRC was identified using the International Classification of Disease (ICD), 9th Revision, code 153. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using the Cox proportional hazards model. Both metformin (adjusted hazard ratio, aHR = 1.12; 95% CI: 0.934-1.335, p = 0.227) and statin (aHR = 1.03; 95% CI: 0.906-1.172, p = 0.645) use showed no association with female CRC in a multivariate analysis. The findings indicate that metformin and statin use showed no protective effect against female colorectal cancer (CRC). An additional randomized trial is necessary to investigate the effect of metformin and statin use in CRC prevention.

Effect of Pre-Existing Sarcopenia on Oncological Outcomes for Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma Undergoing Curative Surgery: A Propensity Score-Matched, Nationwide, Population-Based Cohort Study.

Purpose: The effect of pre-existing sarcopenia on patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) remains unknown. Therefore, we designed a propensity score-matched population-based cohort study to compare the oncological outcomes of patients with OCSCC undergoing curative surgery with and without sarcopenia. Patients and Methods: We included patients with OCSCC undergoing curative surgery and categorized them into two groups according to the presence or absence of pre-existing sarcopenia. Patients in both the groups were matched at a ratio of 2:1. Results: The matching process yielded 16,294 patients (10,855 and 5439 without and with pre-existing sarcopenia, respectively). In multivariate Cox regression analyses, the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR, 95% confidence interval [CI]) of all-cause mortality for OCSCC with and without pre-existing sarcopenia was 1.15 (1.11−1.21, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, the aHRs (95% CIs) of locoregional recurrence and distant metastasis for OCSCC with and without pre-existing sarcopenia were 1.07 (1.03−1.18, p = 0.0020) and 1.07 (1.03−1.20, p = 0.0148), respectively. Conclusions: Pre-existing sarcopenia might be a significant poor prognostic factor for overall survival, locoregional recurrence, and distant metastasis for patients with OCSCC undergoing curative surgery. In susceptible patients at a risk of OCSCC, sarcopenia prevention measures should be encouraged, such as exercise and early nutrition intervention.

Exploratory Study of Palliative Care Utilization and Medical Expense for Inpatients at the End-of-Life.

BACKGROUND: Previous research mostly analyzed the utilization of palliative care for patients with cancer, and data regarding non-cancer inpatients are limited. OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to investigate the current situation regarding palliative care and the important factors that influence its utilization by inpatients (including inpatients with and without cancer) at the end of their lives. We also explored the feasibility of establishing a prediction model of palliative care utilization for inpatients at the end of their lives. These findings will allow medical staff to monitor and focus on those who may require palliative care, resulting in more end-of-life patients receiving palliative care and thereby reducing medical expense and improving their quality of life. METHODS: This was a retrospective study based on real-world health information system (HIS) data from 5 different branches of Taipei City Hospital between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2018 that enrolled a total of 1668 deceased inpatients. To explore palliative care utilization at the end of life, we used 5-fold cross-validation in four different statistical models to obtain the performance of predictive accuracy: logistic regression (LGR), classification and regression tree (CART), multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), and gradient boosting (GB). The important variables that may affect palliative care utilization by inpatients were also identified. RESULTS: The results were as follows: (1) 497 (29.8%) inpatients received palliative care; (2) the average daily hospitalization cost of patients with cancer who received palliative care (NTD 5789 vs. NTD 12,115; p ≤ 0.001) and all patients who received palliative care (NTD 91,527 vs. NTD 186,981; p = 0.0037) were statistically significantly lower than patients who did not receive palliative care; (3) diagnosis, hospital, and length of stay (LOS) may affect palliative care utilization of inpatient; diagnosis, hospitalization unit, and length of hospitalization were statistically significant by LGR; (4) 51.5% of patients utilized palliative consultation services, and 48.5% utilized palliative care units; and (5) MARS had the most consistent results; its accuracy was 0.751, and the main predictors of palliative care utilization are hospital, medical expense, LOS, diagnosis, and Palliative Care Screening Tool-Taiwan version (TW-PCST) scores. CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal that palliative care utilization by inpatients remains low, and it is necessary to educate patients without cancer of the benefits and advantages of palliative care. Although data were limited, the predictability of the MARS model was 0.751; a better prediction model with more data is necessary for further research. Precisely predicting the need for palliative care may encourage patients and their family members to consider palliative care, which may balance both physical and mental care. Therefore, unnecessary medical care can be avoided and limited medical resources can be allocated to more patients in need.

Feasibility of Upper Gastrointestinal Examination in Home Care Setting with a Magnetically Assisted Capsule Endoscopy System: A Retrospective Study.

The magnetic assisted capsule endoscope (MACE) with a hand-held magnetic field navigator (MFN) for upper gastrointestinal examination achieved satisfactory results in a healthy volunteer study. We evaluated the feasibility of upper gastrointestinal examination in the home care setting with the MACE system. Home care patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms that received an MACE exam were enrolled in the study. MACE procedure time; completeness of observation of important anatomical landmarks; endoscopic diagnosis; patient tolerance during the procedure; and patient data, including age, sex, comorbidities, symptoms, body weight, and height, were retrieved from hospital information system for data analysis. A total of 16 participants were enrolled with a mean age 74.3 ± 15.4 years (47 to 99 years). One patient failed to swallow the capsule and was excluded. The average procedure time was 23.7 ± 10.0 min (14.1 to 42.5 min) to complete each endoscopic exam for the remaining 15 patients. The overall maneuverability in the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum was 93.75%, 87.5%, and 75%, respectively. Overall completeness in the aforementioned regions was 93.75%, 81.25%, and 75%, respectively. No severe adverse events were noted. The results clearly demonstrate the promise of using this MACE system to perform endoscopic examination outside the hospital for patients confined to the community and home.

Increased risk of dementia in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer treated with radiation therapy: A nationwide population-based cohort study.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the risk of dementia in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) after undergoing radiation therapy (RT). METHODS: Between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2015, 594 patients newly diagnosed with NPC and treated with RT (NPC cohort) were identified from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) for this nationwide population-based matched cohort study. LHID is a subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. We selected 2376 controls (non-NPC comparison cohort) using a four-fold propensity score-matched by sex, age, comorbidities, education level, tobacco abuse, and index date (the date when the patient received first RT). After adjusting for confounding factors, Fine and Gray's competing risk analysis compared dementia development between the NPC study cohort and non-NPC comparison cohort over the observation period from 2000 to 2015. RESULTS: Dementia development was 6.57% (39 of 594) and 4.42% (105 of 2376) in the NPC study cohort and non-NPC comparison cohort, respectively. Patients with NPC receiving RT were more likely to develop dementia than the comparison cohort, with a crude hazard ratio (HR) of 1.63 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.25-2.13, P < 0.001]. After adjusting for age, sex, education level, tobacco abuse, comorbidity, geographic area, urbanization level of the residence, and care level, the adjusted HR was 1.91 (95% CI = 1.42-2.51, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with NPC receiving RT had a 1.91-fold higher risk of dementia than the non-NPC comparison controls.

A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis of Publications on Advance Care Planning in the Past 3 Decades.

BACKGROUND: In recent decades, issues related to end-of-life care and advance care planning (ACP) have attracted popular attention. Advance care planning has been broadly discussed as one of the potential solutions to protect a patient's rights, autonomy, and dignity at the end of life. To better understand publishing on this topic, we conducted this study to demonstrate the worldwide research productivity, trends, and citations of ACP in the past 3 decades by bibliometric analysis. METHODS: Articles published on ACP were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database, and the subject terms included "advance directive," or "advance care planning." RESULTS: Overall, 2126 publications on ACP were retrieved until January 22, 2019. North America, Western Europe, and Australia were the most productive regions. The top 15 countries published 95.9% of the total number of articles. The United States accounted for approximately three-fifths (61.0%) of all publications. When adjusted for population size, Australia had the highest number of articles per million persons (6.64), followed by the Netherlands (6.14) and Belgium (4.61). The most productive authors were Sudore (n = 37), Deliens (n = 29), and Green (n = 24). CONCLUSIONS: The current study revealed that research in terms of publications on ACP has rapidly increased over the past 3 decades. Developed countries, especially the United States, were more concerned with the ACP research field than developing countries were.

Cancer risk in chronic rhinosinusitis: a propensity score matched case-control cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) have infection, innate immune disorder and chronic inflammation problems which are considered as potential mechanism of tumorigenesis. To estimate cancer risk in CRS using propensity scores matching (PSM) case-control cohort study. METHODS: A nationwide retrospective case-control cohort study is conducted on claim data from National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. From January 2000 to December 2005, case group included 32677 CRS patients (including 544 with surgery in case 1 group and 32133 without surgery in case 2 group), and control group included 98031 subjects without CRS which were matching by PSM method on all baseline characteristics. All subjects were followed up from January 2006 till December 2013, the risk of cancers were calculated during the period. Conditional logistic regression Analysis of Cancer Risk is used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for case, case 1 and case 2 compared with control group. The difference in cancer risk among case, case 1 and case 2 drew the conclusions of this paper. RESULTS: The risk of cancers in head and neck (adjusted OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.33-1.75), colon (adjusted OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 1.09-1.39), liver (adjusted OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.09-1.41), lung (adjusted OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1-1.3), skin (adjusted OR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.05-1.79), breast (adjusted OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.01-1.36), prostate (adjusted OR: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.54-2.22) and bladder (adjusted OR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.17-1.48) were statistical significantly higher in CRS patients than non-CRS group. Compared with CRS patients without surgery, risk of cancers in head and neck, colon, liver, lung, skin, breast, and prostate were higher in CRS patients receiving surgery. CONCLUSION: Cancer risk in CRS patients is significant high than non-CRS patients, especially in head and neck, breast, lung, bladder, colorectal, liver, prostate, and skin cancers. Surgical interventions in CRS patients could not decrease cancer risk in CRS patients.

Associations of body mass index and diabetes with hip fracture risk: a nationwide cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of diabetes is associated with body mass index (BMI), and diabetes can cause many complications, such as hip fractures. This study investigated the effects of BMI and diabetes on the risk of hip fractures and related factors. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data from 22,048 subjects aged ≧ 40 years from the National Health Interview Survey in Taiwan (NHIST) in 2001, 2005, and 2009. We linked the NHIST data for individual participants with the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), which includes the incidence of hip fracture from 2000 to 2013. We defined five categories for BMI: low BMI (BMI < 18.5), normal BMI (18.5 ≦ BMI < 24), overweight (24 ≦ BMI < 27), mild obesity (27 ≦ BMI < 30), and moderate obesity (BMI ≧ 30). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the effects of BMI and diabetes on risk of hip fracture. RESULTS: The Cox proportional hazards model shows that hip fracture risk in participants with diabetes was 1.64 times that of non-diabetes patients (95% confidence interval [CI]:1.30-2.15). Participants with low BMIs showed a higher hip fracture risk (HR: 1.75) than those with normal BMI. Among the five BMI groups, compared with non-diabetes patients, only diabetes patients with a normal BMI showed a significantly higher risk on hip fracture (HR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.48-3.06). In participants with diabetes, compared with those with normal BMI, those with overweight or obesity showed significantly lower hip fracture risks (HR: 0.49 or 0.42). The hip fracture risk in participants who expend ≧ 500 kcal/week in exercise was 0.67 times lower than in those who did not exercise. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes and low BMI separately are important risk factors for hip fracture. There was an interaction between diabetes and BMI in the relationship with hip fracture (p = 0.001). The addition of energy expenditure through exercise could effectively decrease hip fracture risk, regardless of whether the participants have diabetes or not. The results of this study could be used as a reference for health promotion measures for people with diabetes.

Lower risk of end stage renal disease in diabetic nurse.

OBJECTIVES: As professional medical caregivers, nurses have extensive medical knowledge and information than general population. However, they may use their professional knowledge and networks to seek prompt health services. In this study, we aimed to determine susceptibility of nurses with diabetes to developing end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis compared to diabetes patients in the general population. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal study extracted data of nurses with newly diagnosed diabetes and general patients with diabetes from the National Health Insurance Database between 1998 and 2006 and follow-up to December 2009, satisfied the participant inclusion criteria was 518,058. Nurses and general population were matched with propensity score method in a 1:10 ratio. Basic characteristics and health status were similar between groups. Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare relative risks and dialysis factors between groups. RESULTS: Nurses were younger than general population with diabetes (42.01 years vs. 59.29 years) and had lower risk of dialysis (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.36, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.81). Nurses with Diabetes Complications Severity Index (DCSI)≧3 had dialysis risk up to 83.53 times higher than that of the reference group (DCSI < 3). DCSI was the only variable determined to be a related factor affecting dialysis risk in nurses with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses with diabetes have lower risk of dialysis. This suggests that nurses may have more knowledge regarding chronic disease control and change their lifestyles than general diabetes patients. Results of this study may serve as a reference for developing health education.

Pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction in patients with left to right shunt coronary artery fistula: evaluation with cardiac CT.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether patients with left to right shunt coronary artery fistula (LRSCAF) are predisposed to developing pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction compared with healthy individuals. The value of cardiac CT findings in determining the necessity of intervention for these patients was investigated. We retrospectively studied 19 patients with LRSCAF and 19 healthy patients. Several parameters were observed on cardiac CT by two radiologists, including pulmonary trunk diameter (PA diameter), right ventricular diameter (RVD), left ventricular diameter (LVD), RVD/LVD ratio, septal bowing and CT score of right ventricular dysfunction (CSRVD). Data from both groups were compared. The inter- and intra-observer variabilities and correlations were examined. The disease group was further divided into intervention (n = 9) and non-intervention (n = 10) groups, and their data were compared. All cardiac CT findings showed significant intra- and inter-observer correlation without significant variability. Mann-Whitney U tests and χ(2) analysis showed that PA diameter, RVD/LVD ratio acquired from two observers, and CSRVD were higher in the disease group than in the control group (all P values < 0.05 for χ(2) and almost all P values < 0.05 for Mann-Whitney U). The RVD/LVD ratio and CSRVD were higher in the intervention group than in the non-intervention group (all P values < 0.05). Receiver operating curve analysis identified RVD/LVD = 1.036 and CSRVD = 3.5 as the best cut-off values to determine the necessity of further intervention. Patients with LRSCAF are more predisposed to pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction compared with the normal population. RVD/LVD > 1.0 and CSRVD ≥ 4.0 may determine the necessity of intervention for patients with LRSCAF.