National Taiwan University Hospital

Carotid energy pulsatility index provides complementary hemodynamic information to renal function in a community-based cohort

Abstract Conventional hemodynamic, including Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), characteristic impedance (Zc), and brachial pulse pressure, do not directly quantify pulsatile energy transmission through the arterial system. Carotid energy pulsatility index (PI), derived...

Hyperglycemia induces endothelial mitochondrial dysfunction and myeloperoxidase dysregulation in PCOS iPSCs

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD), driven in part by endothelial dysfunction. Using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), we established an endothelial model to examine cellular responses to metab...

Redefining Kidney Stone Incidence: Emerging Age-Related Patterns

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between age and incident kidney stone disease using contemporary, age- and sex-stratified population-based data from the UK Biobank. METHODS: We undertook a cohort study of 494,745 UK Biobank participants after excluding 7406 individuals wit...

Targeting the Gut to Modify Parkinson's Disease: From Mechanisms to Potential Therapeutics

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and its prevalence continues to rise with population aging. Its cardinal motor features arise from the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, accompanied by intraneuronal α-synuclein aggr...

The Evolving Role of Pharmacists in Doping Prevention: A Scoping Review

CONTEXT: Doping and inadvertent exposure to prohibited substances are major concerns in sport because of their implications for athlete health, medication safety, and fair competition. The growing use of prescription medications, over-the-counter products, and dietary supplements...

Integrating generative artificial intelligence facilitates faculty interaction network and role transition in a biostatistics curriculum

In a two-year action-research study within an undergraduate biostatistics curriculum for nursing, pharmacy, and medical biotechnology students, we examined how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) facilitates educators to design, supervise, and evaluate learning. Students u...

Rational Control of Antibody Orientation for Enhancing Sensitivity and Specificity in Lateral Flow Immunoassays With Clinical Validation

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are widely used for point-of-care diagnostics, but their sensitivity is often limited by inefficient antibody orientation and poor signal transduction. Herein, we report a universal strategy integrating orientation-controlled antibody conjugation at the...

Clinical Implications of the Novel Genetic Polymorphism Associated With Retinal Vein Occlusion: The East Asian GWAS Survey in a Single-Center Taiwanese Cohort

Purpose: To explore the single-nucleotide polymorphic features in an East Asian cohort of retinal venous occlusion (RVO) patients, to map pathogenic genes, and to analyze potential pathophysiological associations. Methods: This was a cross-sectional monocentric cohort study invol...

Delivery of cardiac rehabilitation through hybrid models and alternative settings by country income classification and decade: Comparisons from the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s 2025 Global Audit Update

Objective Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an outpatient model of secondary prevention that improves patient outcomes, yet use remains limited. Hybrid/alternative CR addresses these challenges, but global availability, structure, and volumes have not been characterized since the pa...

Diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenopathy: the role of droplet digital PCR

Background: Tuberculous lymphadenopathy (TB-LAP) is the most common form of extrapulmonary TB and remains diagnostically challenging due to its paucibacillary nature. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (...

The chromatin-organizer Satb1 modulates regulatory T cell activity within the tumor microenvironment

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are essential for maintaining immune homeostasis and preventing autoimmune diseases, but are also a major cellular constituent of the tumor microenvironment (TME) that facilitates cancer progression. Identifying differences in Treg subtypes to specifica...

Lipid Burden and Efficacy of Preventive PCI of Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Coronary Plaques: Post Hoc Analysis From the PREVENT Trial

BACKGROUND: Preventive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of non–flow-limiting lesions (fractional flow reserve >0.80) that are high-risk plaques has emerged as a potential strategy to reduce cardiac events. However, identifying which lesions derive the greatest benefit fro...

Incidence and Predictors of Complications After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation According to VARC‐3 Criteria: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

BACKGROUND: Despite continuous advancements in devices and techniques, transcatheter aortic valve implantation remains associated with complications impacting outcomes. In 2021, the Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC) introduced the VARC-3 criteria to better classify proced...

Native Mass Spectrometry Reveals Ligand-Specific Conformational Heterogeneity of the β1-Adrenergic Receptor Using Nanobody Probes

Abstract G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are central physiological signal transducers and represent a primary class of therapeutic targets. While emerging evidence highlights a critical link between ligand-induced receptor conformations and pharmacological outcomes, the struc...

Efficacy and Safety of EG12014 (Biosimilar Trastuzumab) Compared to Reference Trastuzumab in HER2-Positive Early Breast Cancer: A Phase III Randomized Study

Trastuzumab biosimilar EG12014 (Herwenda ® ; EirGenix/Sandoz) was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2023. We aim to demonstrate equivalent efficacy, and to compare safety, immunogenicity, and pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles, of EG12014 and reference trastuzumab (re...

Clinical outcomes and diagnostic stability in first-episode other specified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorder: evidence for a distinct clinical entity

Research on the clinical outcomes and diagnostic stability of first-episode other specified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorder (FE-OSSO) remains very limited. This study was conducted to identify baseline demographic and clinical features and cognitive function,...

CCKBR (Gastrin Receptor) as a Theranostic Target in Oncology: Biological Rationale, Diagnostic Imaging, and Next-Generation Peptide-Based Drug Development

Cholecystokinin B receptor (CCKBR) is a promising theranostic target because of its overexpression in several malignancies, including medullary thyroid carcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, gastric cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Its high-affinity ligand binding and efficient recepto...

Intrinsic Fermi Level Pinning and Reversible Depinning at Ultralow-Defect Epitaxial MoSe2/Au(111) Interfaces

Abstract Fermi level pinning (FLP) fundamentally limits contact engineering in two-dimensional semiconductors, yet its intrinsic origin remains obscured by the presence of interfacial disorder and defect-induced gap states. Although theoretical models attribute FLP to metal-induc...

Association between the overnight urinary cortisol-to-creatinine ratio and self-reported osteoporosis in community-dwelling Taiwanese adults: a population-based cross-sectional study

Chronic psychosocial stress is increasingly recognized as an important determinant of healthy aging and may contribute to osteoporosis through activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. However, the association between physiological variation in endogenous corti...

Summary of Research: HER2CLIMB-05: A Phase III Study of Tucatinib Versus Placebo in Combination with Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab as First-Line Maintenance Therapy for HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

This is a summary of a research article reporting the findings of the HER2CLIMB-05 trial (NCT05132582), a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, international, phase III trial. The HER2CLIMB-05 trial was conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of adding tucatinib vers...