Correlation of blood gas analysis was made in 41 cases of young infa-nts younger than 3 months of age suffering from acute broncho -pneu-monia. Correlation of PO_2 with PCO_2 HCO_3~-, pH and BE was mace accord-dingly and with each other. Among which PO_2 and PCO_2 were the main items. Altogether 15 rairs of correl-alion in all were made.PO_2 and PCO_2 are significantly negatively correlated (P

Although several algorithms have been applied to treat patients with schizophrenia, their clinical use remains still limited, because most emphasize the prescription of antipsychotics. A new algorithm with a more holistic approach to treating patients with schizophrenia, to be used before applying traditional prescribing guidelines, was thus proposed by an expert team of Taiwanese psychiatrists. In this algorithm, several important treatment tasks/modalities are proposed, including long-acting injection anti-psychotics, shared decision-making, a case management system, compulsory treatment by law, community rehabilitation programs, the patients' feeling about their health care professionals (patients' behaviors) and their attitude/knowledge of their conditions/illness. This study proposes that evaluating the medication adherence of patients can be determined by two key domains, namely patients' behaviors and attitudes. Based on different levels of their behaviors (X-axis) and attitude/knowledge (Y-axis), it is possible to categorize patients with schizophrenia into six subgroups, for which various different interventions, including the use of antipsychotics, could be applied and integrated. Further research is needed to assess the applicability of this treatment algorithm in clinical settings.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Case Management ; Delivery of Health Care ; Holistic Health ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Medication Adherence* ; Prescriptions ; Psychiatry ; Rehabilitation ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVE: Altered event-related potential (ERP) performances have been noted in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients and reflect neurocognitive dysfunction. Whether these ERP alterations and correlated dysfunctions exist in healthy parents with ADHD offspring is worth exploring. METHODS: Thirteen healthy parents with ADHD offspring and thirteen healthy controls matched for age, sex and years of education were recruited. The auditory oddball paradigm was used to evaluate the P300 wave complex of the ERP, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and continuous performance test were used to measure neurocognitive performance. RESULTS: Healthy parents with ADHD offspring had significantly longer auditory P300 latency at Fz than control group. However, no significant differences were found in cognitive performance. CONCLUSION: The presence of a subtle alteration in electro-neurophysiological activity without explicit neurocognitive dysfunction suggests potential candidate of biological marker for parents with ADHD offspring.
Adult ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ; Biomarkers ; Cognition ; Education ; Evoked Potentials ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Parents ; Wisconsin

Interleukin (IL)-20, a proinflammatory cytokine of the IL-10 family, is involved in acute and chronic renal failure. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of IL-20 during diabetic nephropathy development. We found that IL-20 and its receptor IL-20R1 were upregulated in the kidneys of mice and rats with STZ-induced diabetes. In vitro, IL-20 induced MMP-9, MCP-1, TGF-β1 and VEGF expression in podocytes. IL-20 was upregulated by hydrogen peroxide, high-dose glucose and TGF-β1. In addition, IL-20 induced apoptosis in podocytes by activating caspase-8. In STZ-induced early diabetic nephropathy, IL-20R1-deficient mice had lower blood glucose and serum BUN levels and a smaller glomerular area than did wild-type controls. Anti-IL-20 monoclonal antibody (7E) treatment reduced blood glucose and the glomerular area and improved renal functions in mice in the early stage of STZ-induced diabetic nephropathy. ELISA showed that the serum IL-20 level was higher in patients with diabetes mellitus than in healthy controls. The findings of this study suggest that IL-20 induces cell apoptosis of podocytes and plays a role in the pathogenesis of early diabetic nephropathy.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blood Glucose ; Caspase 8 ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetic Nephropathies* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; In Vitro Techniques ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukins ; Kidney ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Mice ; Podocytes* ; Rats ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is predominantly an inherited cardiomyopathy with typical histopathological characteristics of fibro-fatty infiltration mainly involving the right ventricular (RV) inflow tract, RV outflow tract, and RV apex in the majority of patients. The above pathologic evolution frequently brings patients with ARVD/C to medical attention owing to the manifestation of syncope, sudden cardiac death (SCD), ventricular arrhythmogenesis, or heart failure. To prevent future or recurrent SCD, an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) is highly desirable in patients with ARVD/C who had experienced unexplained syncope, hemodynamically intolerable ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation, and/or aborted SCD. Notably, the management of frequent ventricular tachyarrhythmias in ARVD/C is challenging, and the use of antiarrhythmic drugs could be unsatisfactory or limited by the unfavorable side effects. Therefore, radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) has been implemented to treat the drug-refractory VT in ARVD/C for decades. However, the initial understanding of the link between fibro-fatty pathogenesis and ventricular arrhythmogenesis in ARVD/C is scarce, the efficacy and prognosis of endocardial RFCA alone were limited and disappointing. The electrophysiologists had broken through this frontier after better illustration of epicardial substrates and broadly application of epicardial approaches in ARVD/C. In recent works of literature, the application of epicardial ablation also successfully results in higher procedural success and decreases VT recurrences in patients with ARVD/C who are refractory to the endocardial approach during long-term follow-up. In this article, we review the important evolution on the delineation of arrhythmogenic substrates, ablation strategies, and ablation outcome of VT in patients with ARVD/C.
Anti-Arrhythmia Agents ; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia ; Cardiomyopathies ; Catheter Ablation ; Catheters ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Defibrillators ; Epicardial Mapping ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Syncope ; Tachycardia ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; Ventricular Fibrillation

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is predominantly an inherited cardiomyopathy with typical histopathological characteristics of fibro-fatty infiltration mainly involving the right ventricular (RV) inflow tract, RV outflow tract, and RV apex in the majority of patients. The above pathologic evolution frequently brings patients with ARVD/C to medical attention owing to the manifestation of syncope, sudden cardiac death (SCD), ventricular arrhythmogenesis, or heart failure. To prevent future or recurrent SCD, an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) is highly desirable in patients with ARVD/C who had experienced unexplained syncope, hemodynamically intolerable ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation, and/or aborted SCD. Notably, the management of frequent ventricular tachyarrhythmias in ARVD/C is challenging, and the use of antiarrhythmic drugs could be unsatisfactory or limited by the unfavorable side effects. Therefore, radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) has been implemented to treat the drug-refractory VT in ARVD/C for decades. However, the initial understanding of the link between fibro-fatty pathogenesis and ventricular arrhythmogenesis in ARVD/C is scarce, the efficacy and prognosis of endocardial RFCA alone were limited and disappointing. The electrophysiologists had broken through this frontier after better illustration of epicardial substrates and broadly application of epicardial approaches in ARVD/C. In recent works of literature, the application of epicardial ablation also successfully results in higher procedural success and decreases VT recurrences in patients with ARVD/C who are refractory to the endocardial approach during long-term follow-up. In this article, we review the important evolution on the delineation of arrhythmogenic substrates, ablation strategies, and ablation outcome of VT in patients with ARVD/C.

Objective: aaWilson’s disease (WD) is a rare genetic disorder of copper metabolism, and longitudinal follow-up studies are limited. We performed a retrospective analysis to determine the clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes in a large WD cohort. Methods: aaMedical records of WD patients diagnosed from 2006–2021 at National Taiwan University Hospital were retrospectively evaluated for clinical presentations, neuroimages, genetic information, and follow-up outcomes. Results: aaThe present study enrolled 123 WD patients (mean follow-up: 11.12 ± 7.41 years), including 74 patients (60.2%) with hepatic features and 49 patients (39.8%) with predominantly neuropsychiatric symptoms. Compared to the hepatic group, the neuropsychiatric group exhibited more Kayser-Fleischer rings (77.6% vs. 41.9%, p < 0.01), lower serum ceruloplasmin levels (4.9 ± 3.9 vs. 6.3 ± 3.9 mg/dL, p < 0.01), smaller total brain and subcortical gray matter volumes (p < 0.0001), and worse functional outcomes during follow-up (p = 0.0003). Among patients with available DNA samples (n = 59), the most common mutations were p.R778L (allelic frequency of 22.03%) followed by p.P992L (11.86%) and p.T935M (9.32%). Patients with at least one allele of p.R778L had a younger onset age (p = 0.04), lower ceruloplasmin levels (p < 0.01), lower serum copper levels (p = 0.03), higher percentage of the hepatic form (p = 0.03), and a better functional outcome during follow-up (p = 0.0012) compared to patients with other genetic variations. Conclusion aaThe distinct clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes of patients in our cohort support the ethnic differences regarding the mutational spectrum and clinical presentations in WD.