National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Long-term outcome between two different revascularization strategies for patients with left main coronary artery disease and concomitant chronic total occlusion of right coronary artery disease

Objectives Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease is technically demanding if there is a concomitant chronic total occlusion (CTO) of the right coronary artery (RCA). Which vessel to be revascularized in first attempt was not evaluat...

Long-Term Air Pollutant Exposure and the Risk of Cardiovascular- and Cancer-Related Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study in Taiwan

Air pollution exposure can cause vascular dysfunction and induce mutagenesis; however, its effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD)– and cancer-related mortality remain unclear. This prospective cohort study examined the impact of long-term exposure to multiple air pollutants on t...

Biosynthesis of 3-Hydroxy-3-methylbutyrate by Probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917

Abstract 3-Hydroxy-3-methylbutyrate (HMB) is an important nutritional supplement for managing sarcopenia. This study engineered an HMB biosynthetic pathway in the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN). The initial engineered strain exhibited low HMB titers, as carbon flux...

Culturally Familiar Nostalgic Virtual Reality Cognitive Training for Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Day-Care Centers

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effectiveness of a virtual reality based nostalgic cognitive training program for older adults attending day-care centers. METHODS: = 55; mean age = 81.24 years), participants received 12 sessions of VR-based nostalgic cognitive training integr...

Cilostazol Treatment for Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Targeting Dural Lymphatics

BACKGROUND: The meningeal lymphatic system contributes to hematoma resolution and neurological recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We previously demonstrated that intraperitoneal cilostazol administration promotes dural lymphatic growth and enhances clearance of intrac...

Decline in dementia patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cohort study in Taiwan

Background: The cognitive consequences of COVID-19 in patients with dementia remain uncertain. This study examined whether COVID-19 infection was associated with cognitive decline. Methods: From October 2020 to October 2022, COVID-19-naïve patients with dementia were recruited fr...

Early hearing improvement predicts complete recovery in sudden hearing loss

BACKGROUND: Early prediction of recovery in sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) remains challenging. Early hearing improvement (EHI) may serve as a simple prognostic marker, but its quantitative relationship with complete recovery (CR) has not been well defined. We investig...

Enhancing nasal irrigation adherence through a multimodal health communication strategy: a phased improvement study

Abstract The adherence of chronic rhinitis patients to self-administered treatments is generally very low, which often presents a significant challenge in healthcare. The adherence of chronic rhinitis patients to regular nasal irrigation hygiene care is even lower. Therefore, in...

Protective effects of Abelmoschus manihot flower extracts against blue light-emitting diode light-induced retinal photoreceptor cell damage in vivo and in vitro.

BACKGROUND: flower extract (AME), rich in flavonoids, possesses antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties; however, its protective effects on the retina have not been fully elucidated. METHODS: analyses included cell viability assays, TUNEL staining, reactive oxygen species (R...

Biomechanical comparison of mini-plate and screw fixation in minimally invasive distal metatarsal osteotomy for hallux valgus

Aims To biomechanically compare the stability of mini-plate and dual-screw fixation following minimally invasive distal metatarsal osteotomy for hallux valgus, with an emphasis on early-stage stability under clinically relevant loading conditions. Methods Three fixation configura...

Real-world implementation and evaluation of a pharmacogenomic clinical decision support system for allopurinol and HLA-B*58:01

Abstract Background Allopurinol-induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs), including Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), are strongly associated with the HLA-B*58:01 allele. Despite guidelines recommending genotyping prior to initiation,...

Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association and Asia-Pacific Association of Gastroenterology Chronic Constipation Consensus 2026.

Background/Aims: : Chronic constipation is a common gastrointestinal (GI) disorder in Asia, characterized by heterogeneous symptom presentation, frequent overlap with other GI symptoms, and limited access to specialized diagnostic tests in many settings. These factors contribute...

Combined Orbital Decompression and Rectus Muscle Myectomy for Large-Angle Strabismus in Thyroid-Associated Orbitopathy

Thyroid-associated orbitopathy (TAO) often causes restrictive strabismus and diplopia. Large-angle deviations pose particular challenges owing to extraocular muscle fibrosis and unpredictable surgical dose–response. Although combined orbital decompression and strabismus correctio...

Prognostic Relevance and Immune Correlates of DAPK1 Expression and CD4+/CD8+ T-Cell Infiltration in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: Death-associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) is a key regulator of apoptosis and immune responses; however, its prognostic significance in oral cancer remains insufficiently characterized. This study investigated the prognostic relevance of DAPK1 in oral squamous cell ca...

TargetPrior: A miRNA-Signature Embedded Evolutionary Learning Framework for Prioritizing Drug Targets in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

MOTIVATION: Prioritizing therapeutic targets from high-dimensional transcriptomic profiles is hindered by the underdetermined nature of the p ≫ n setting. While miRNA signatures can inform target prioritization, conventional accuracy-driven methods may yield unstable predictive s...

Early balloon-assisted–maturation does not reduce patency of mature arteriovenous fistulae

While balloon-assisted maturation (BAM) is increasingly used to promote arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) maturation, its effects on post-maturation patency remain unclear. This study investigates the patency of BAM-matured AVF at 1 year in hemodialysis patients. This retrospective co...

Protein Kinase C-delta (PKCδ) in Neurodegeneration and Cerebral Ischemia: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications

Abstract Protein kinase C delta (PKCδ), a calcium-independent novel PKC isoform, is increasingly recognized as a compartmentalized regulator of stress signaling in the central nervous system. Through tyrosine phosphorylation, subcellular translocation, regulation of its expressio...

Proximal Policy Optimization for Latency-Aware Service Function Chain Placement in Edge-Enabled Networks

Modern networked systems are progressively adopting network virtualization and Service Function Chaining (SFC) to deliver scalable, flexible and low-latency services. A central challenge in this context is the Service Function Chain Placement Problem (SFC-PP), which involves effi...

Enhancing instance discrimination for self-supervised adversarial training

A learning machine is prone to be attacked by adversarial examples in presence of imperceptible perturbations. Adversarial training (AT) is developed to build a defense model against the adversarial attacks. Most of the previous works were conducted in supervised setting. To rele...

Two Faces of the Right Ventricle in Fabry Cardiomyopathy: Septal-Coupled and Atrial-Coupled Strain Patterns and Their Differential Associations with Enzyme Replacement Therapy

Right ventricular global longitudinal strain (RVGLS) and right ventricular free-wall longitudinal strain (RVFWLS) are both used to assess right ventricular involvement, but they include different myocardial components. We examined their cross-sectional correlates and longitudinal...