Trends in Research about COVID-19 Vaccine Documented through Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis.

Due to COVID-19, people's lives have changed greatly. In accordance with former experience, an efficacious vaccine is the most effective way to curb the pandemic; thus, many researchers have published related publications in the short term. Hence, this study aims at using bibliometric analysis and visualization to document research trends regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and offer some directions and suggestions for future research. Initially, all eligible publications were downloaded from Web of Science on 1 January 2022. Subsequently, some publications published before December 2019 were removed since COVID-19 did not occur before that date. Finally, Microsoft Excel is used for bibliometric analysis to analyze publication date, author, affiliation, country, publication title, publisher, research area, document type, and language, and visualized software (VOSviewer) is used to visualize author, affiliation, country, and keywords. After analyzing a total of 17,392 publications, the results show that the overall research trend was upward. Moreover, the prominent authors, institutions, and countries inclined towards regional cooperation instead of international cooperation. Furthermore, the most popular research areas were immunology and medicine (general and internal). Ultimately, COVID-19, vaccine, and SARS-CoV-2 were the top 3 keywords. In conclusion, this study shows the approximate research trend for COVID-19 vaccine during the completely first two years of the pandemic. The research focuses moved from safety, effectiveness, and immunology at the early stage to the optimal allocation strategies for COVID-19 vaccine, and eventually to public attitudes and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccination.

The age correlation of the carotid intima-media thickness according to sex and side in asymptomatic subjects.

PURPOSE: Reports concerning carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and linear correlation to age in healthy subjects did not distinguish the side and sex of the subjects. The purpose of this investigation attempts to clarify these issues. METHODS: 2402 asymptomatic persons, age 35-64, are separated into men's left (Lt) and right (Rt) and women's Lt and Rt carotid arteries for difference of CIMT between them and analysis of CIMT vs. age. RESULTS: There are significant difference between men's CIMT of Lt(CIMTML) vs Rt (CIMTMR), women's Lt(CIMTWL) vs. Rt (CIMTWR), Lt side CIMT of men vs women, and Rt side CIMT of men vs. women. The regression equation of CIMT vs. age for all four groups is determinated. CONCLUSION: We found an excellent linear correlation of CIMT to age and CIMT is significantly higher in men than women, so as higher in Lt than Rt. Further grouping of data into about 5-year period showed more clearly stepwise increasing of CIMT, so as the ratios of Lt CIMT different than Rt. CIMT study is served as highly efficient examination in therapy, prevention, clinic, or research survey about atherosclerosis and risk of stroke. Future study design concerning CIMT in separation groups of men and women, so as Lt and Rt is highly recommended.

Chitosan promotes aquaporin formation and inhibits mucociliary differentiation of nasal epithelial cells through increased TGF-ß1 production.

Although endoscopic sinus surgery is the mainstay surgical treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis, over 15% of patients require a repeat operation wherein postoperative adhesion formation is one of the main causes of failure. Several recently proposed chitosan-based biomaterials promote mucosal healing, reduce postoperative adhesion formation and restore mucociliary function of sinonasal mucosa. However, the effects of chitosan on cellular morphology, re-epithelization, and mucociliary differentiation of nasal epithelial cells (NECs) during the wound healing process have not been thoroughly investigated. The present study investigates the direct effects of chitosan on cellular growth, cellular migration, mucociliary differentiation and aquaporin (AQP) formation of NECs to elucidate the role of chitosan in sinonasal applications. Wound healing assay reveals that proliferation and migration of NECs are inhibited by incubation of chitosan. The NECs become irregular in shape without formation of tight junction and mucociliary differentiation of NECs is inhibited during a culture period with incubation of chitosan. However, AQP3 and AQP5 formation in NECs is significantly higher in chitosan groups than in control groups. Further, expressions of transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß1, Smad2, and Smad3 are significantly higher in the chitosan groups compared with controls. The results of the comparison indicate that chitosan inhibits proliferation, migration and mucociliary differentiation of NECs through increasing production of TGF-ß1. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Doctor pharmaceutical utilization behaviour changed by the global budget programme strategies on hypertensive outpatient prescription.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study was to examine changes in doctor pharmaceutical utilization behaviour in response to Taiwan's newly implemented National Health Insurance individual hospital global budget (GB) programme and the changes in health care costs and prescription trends for hypertensive (HT) patients. METHOD: We analysed hospital outpatient prescription utilization with a pre-post individual hospital GB group and comparison group (the hospitals who did not join the programme) to evaluate the impact of GB strategies on hypertensive expenditure. Descriptive analyses were performed based on the average daily medication expenditure for each prescription, and average number of items per prescription. RESULTS: This study reviewed 16,770,057 outpatient records and prescription records of 213,568 hypertensive patients. The average total medication expense (+17.6%), HT medication expense (+8.8%), daily medication expense (+16.3%), and daily HT medication expense (+6.3%) significantly increased after the action. After the individual hospital GB action, hospital doctors participating in action switched their patients' prescription drugs to other less expensive drugs such as rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (-1.1%). The increase in volume of medications prescribed for control group were significantly larger for both alfa- and beta-adrenergic blocking agents (1.5%), and calcium channel blocking agents (3.9%). CONCLUSION: The individual hospital GB programme slowed down the trend of prescription drug cost increasing rate and reduced the prescription drug volume in hospitals.

Application of data mining on the development of a disease distribution map of screened community residents of Taipei county in Taiwan.

This study used data mining techniques to investigate disease forms in various administrative areas and to analyze the differences among various administrative areas in order to further draw up a disease distribution map. It is hoped that may help formulate future public health strategies and to allocate medical resources more appropriately. The major disease forms for residents under the age of 60 were hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. In regard to the neighboring areas, three neighboring areas, A1, A3, and B9, shared the same disease problems with A4, A5, and B3, while two mountain-area cities, B7 and C10, experienced higher instances of liver function impairment. In terms of the clustering phenomenon among municipally graded administrative areas, the major health problems in Grade A cities were hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia. The health problems such as liver function impairment and renal dysfunction were more frequently observed in Grade B and Grade C cities.

A study of patient satisfaction after cataract surgery with implantation of different types of intraocular lenses.

BACKGROUND: The implementation of capitated payment has driven medical institutions through developing balance billing for medical services. By exploring the patients' decision-making factors on different self-pay items, a reference for the pricing and sales strategy for the related products can be formed. The major purposes of this study were to analyze the determinants of preoperative selection and postoperative satisfaction with implantation of different types of intraocular lenses in cataract surgery. METHODS: This cross-sectional study consisted of 127 patients that were 50 years of age and older, and who had phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation in both eyes. Data were collected by using a structured questionnaire. The following parameters were measured: access to medical care, attitude towards receiving medical products at one's own expense, overall patient satisfaction and postoperative visual clarity. RESULTS: The results showed that the patient's gender, educational level and economic status influenced the type of intraocular lens chosen. Patients in the insurance group cared about access to medical care, and patients in the balance billing group cared about product differentiation. ANOVA results showed no statistically significant differences in the overall satisfaction of the patients among the groups with different types of intraocular lenses. Patients that received cataract surgery with implantation of multifocal intraocular lenses had better vision when trying to view smaller objects and when looking at objects under strong light. CONCLUSIONS: Manufacturers should increase the number of differences between their products, and health care providers can then recommend the appropriate intraocular lens in accordance with the needs or demands of their patients, and also by keeping in mind the financial constraints of their patients.