Changes in Glucose Metabolism after Adrenalectomy or Treatment with a Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist for Primary Aldosteronism

Yu-Fang Lin,Kang-Yung Peng,Chia-Hui Chang,Ya-Hui Hu,Vin-Cent Wu,Shiu-Dong Chung,Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation (TAIPAI) Study Group 대한내분비학회 2020 Endocrinology and metabolism Vol.35 No.4

Background: Data on the effects of excess aldosterone on glucose metabolism are inconsistent. This study compared the changes in glucose metabolism in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) after adrenalectomy or treatment with a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA). Methods: Overall, 241 patients were enrolled; 153 underwent adrenalectomy and 88 received an MRA. Fasting glucose, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and homeostatic model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β) were compared between the treatment groups after 1 year. Plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) and factors determining HOMA-IR and PAC were evaluated. Results: No baseline differences were observed between the groups. Fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-β increased in both groups and there were no significant differences in fasting glucose following treatment. Multiple regression analysis showed associations between PAC and HOMA-IR (β=0.172, P=0.017) after treatment. Treatment with spironolactone was the only risk factor associated with PAC >30 ng/dL (odds ratio, 5.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 10; P<0.001) and conferred a 2.48-fold risk of insulin resistance after 1 year compared with surgery (95% CI, 1.3 to 4.8; P=0.007). Conclusion: Spironolactone treatment might increase insulin resistance in patients with PA. This strengthened the current recommendation that adrenalectomy is the preferred strategy for patient with positive lateralization test. Achieving a post-treatment PAC of <30 ng/dL for improved insulin sensitivity may be appropriate.

CCR6 Is a Predicting Biomarker of Radiosensitivity and Potential Target of Radiosensitization in Rectal Cancer

Hui Chang,Jia-wang Wei,Ya-lan Tao,Pei-rong Ding,Yun-fei Xia,Yuan-hong Gao,Wei-wei Xiao 대한암학회 2018 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.50 No.4

Purpose This study aimed to explore the functions and mechanisms of C-C motif chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6), a gene associated with progression and metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC), in radiosensitivity of rectal cancer (RC). Materials and Methods RNA sequencing and immunohistochemical analysis on CCR6 expression were performed in pretreatment tissues of RC patients exhibiting different therapeutic effects of radiotherapy. Colonogenic survival assay was conducted in different CRC cell lines to assess their radiosensitivity. And the impact of CCR6 expression on radiosensitivity was validated through RNA interference. The DNA damage repair (DDR) abilities of cell lines with different CCR6 expression were evaluated through immunofluorescence-based H2AX quantification. Results The CCR6 mRNA level was higher in patients without pathologic complete remission (pCR) than in those with pCR (fold changed, 2.11; p=0.004). High-level expression of CCR6 protein was more common in the bad responders than in the good responders (76.3% vs. 37.5%, p < 0.001). The CRC cell lines with higher CCR6 expression (LoVo and sw480) appeared to be more radioresistant, compared with the sw620 cell line which had lower CCR6 expression. CCR6 knockdown made the LoVo cells more sensitive to ionizing radiation (sensitization enhancement ratio, 1.738; p < 0.001), and decreased their DDR efficiency. Conclusion CCR6 might affect the RC radiosensitivity through DDR process. These findings supported CCR6 as a predicting biomarker of radiosensitivity and a potential target of radiosensitization for RC patients.

Using Root Cause Analysis for the Reduction of Fall Accidents

Chang Ya-Hui,Chang Huei-Lan 한국간호과학회 2015 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2015 No.10

Type 2 diabetes mellitus increases the severity of non-fatal injuries, but not the risk of fatal injuries, among driver victims of motor vehicle crashes in Taiwan

Chang Ya-Hui,Hou Wen-Hsuan,Ya-Hui Chang,Li Chung-Yi 한국역학회 2022 Epidemiology and Health Vol.44 No.-

OBJECTIVES: Limited information is available on whether diabetes increases the severity of injuries from motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). This study aimed to investigate the association of type 2 diabetes with injury severity among driver victims of MVCs. METHODS: This cohort study involved 75,737 adult driver victims with type 2 diabetes from Taiwan’s Police-Reported Traffic Accident Registry in 2015-2017, along with 150,911 sex-, age-, and calendar year-matched controls. The severity level of nonfatal injuries was derived from the International Classification of Diseases Programs for Injury Categorization based on the diagnostic codes of National Health Insurance claims within 3 days after an MVC. Information on fatal injuries within 3 days after an MVC was obtained from the Taiwan Death Registry. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of injury severity in association with type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: After adjusting for potential confounders, driver victims with type 2 diabetes experienced significantly higher risks of mild and severe non-fatal injuries than their counterparts without diabetes, with covariate-adjusted ORs of 1.08 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.11) and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.20 to 1.37), respectively. By contrast, the adjusted OR for fatal injuries was not significantly elevated, at 1.02 (95% CI, 0.89 to 1.18). Similar results were found when car and scooter driver victims were analyzed separately. CONCLUSIONS: Type 2 diabetes was found to moderately increase the severity of non-fatal injuries from MVCs among car and scooter driver victims.

The Ca _V 3.2 T-Type Ca ²⁺ Channel Is Required for Pressure Overload-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy in Mice

Chiang, Chien-Sung,Huang, Ching-Hui,Chieng, Hockling,Chang, Ya-Ting,Chang, Dory,Chen, Ji-Jr,Chen, Yong-Cyuan,Chen, Yen-Hui,Shin, Hee-Sup,Campbell, Kevin P.,Chen, Chien-Chang Ovid Technologies Wolters Kluwer -American Heart A 2009 Circulation research Vol.104 No.4

<P>Voltage-gated T-type Ca(2+) channels (T-channels) are normally expressed during embryonic development in ventricular myocytes but are undetectable in adult ventricular myocytes. Interestingly, T-channels are reexpressed in hypertrophied or failing hearts. It is unclear whether T-channels play a role in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy and what the mechanism might be. Here we show that the alpha(1H) voltage-gated T-type Ca(2+) channel (Ca(v)3.2) is involved in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy via the activation of calcineurin/nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) pathway. Specifically, pressure overload-induced hypertrophy was severely suppressed in mice deficient for Ca(v)3.2 (Ca(v)3.2(-/-)) but not in mice deficient for Ca(v)3.1 (Ca(v)3.1(-/-)). Angiotensin II-induced cardiac hypertrophy was also suppressed in Ca(v)3.2(-/-) mice. Consistent with these findings, cultured neonatal myocytes isolated from Ca(v)3.2(-/-) mice fail to respond hypertrophic stimulation by treatment with angiotensin II. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of Ca(v)3.2 in the development of cardiac hypertrophy both in vitro and in vivo. To test whether Ca(v)3.2 mediates the hypertrophic response through the calcineurin/NFAT pathway, we generated Ca(v)3.2(-/-), NFAT-luciferase reporter mice and showed that NFAT-luciferase reporter activity failed to increase after pressure overload in the Ca(v)3.2(-/-)/NFAT-Luc mice. Our results provide strong genetic evidence that Ca(v)3.2 indeed plays a pivotal role in the induction of calcineurin/NFAT hypertrophic signaling and is crucial for the activation of pathological cardiac hypertrophy.</P>

Adherence to Cancer Prevention Guidelines and Endometrial Cancer Risk: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies

Hui Sun,Qing Chang,Ya-Shu Liu,Yu-Ting Jiang,Ting-Ting Gong,Xiao-Xin Ma,Yu-Hong Zhao,Qi-Jun Wu 대한암학회 2021 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.53 No.1

Purpose The evidence of adherence to cancer prevention guidelines and endometrial cancer (EC) risk has been limited and controversial. This study summarizes and quantifies the relationship between adherence to cancer prevention guidelines and EC risk. Materials and Methods The online databases PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE were searched for relevant publications up to June 2, 2020. This study had been registered at PROSPERO. The registration number is CRD42020149966. Study quality evaluation was performed based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The I2 statistic was used to estimate heterogeneity among studies. Egger’s and Begg’s tests assessed potential publication bias. Summary hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confi dence intervals (CIs) for the relationship between adherence to cancer prevention guidelines score was assigned to participants by summarizing individual scores for each lifestyle-related factor. The scores ranged from least healthy (0) to most healthy (20) and the EC risk was calculated using a random-effects model. Results Five prospective studies (four cohort studies and one case‑cohort study) consisted of 4,470 EC cases, where 597,047 participants were included. Four studies had a low bias risk and one study had a high bias risk. Summary EC HR for the highest vs. lowest score of adherence to cancer prevention guidelines was 0.54 (95% CI, 0.40 to 0.73) and had a high heterogeneity (I2=86.1%). For the dose-response analysis, an increment of 1 significantly reduced the risk of EC by 6%. No signifi cant publication bias was detected. Conclusion This study suggested that adherence to cancer prevention guidelines was negatively related to EC risk.

Effectiveness of "The First Time Out of Bed" to Post Cranial Surgery Patients in Neurosurgery Ward

Ya-Wen Huang,Hui-Mei Chang,Su-Min Wei 한국간호과학회 2011 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2011 No.10

A Robust and Removable Watermarking Scheme Using Singular Value Decomposition

( Ya-feng Di ),( Chin-feng Lee ),( Zhi-hui Wang ),( Chin-chen Chang ),( Jianjun Li ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.12

Digital watermarking techniques are widely applied to protect the integrity and copyright of digital content. In a majority of the literature for watermarking techniques, the watermarked image often causes some distortions after embedding a watermark. For image-quality-concerned users, the distortions from a watermarked image are unacceptable. In this article, we propose a removable watermarking scheme that can restore an original-like image and resist signal-processing attacks to protect the ownership of an image by utilizing the property of singular value decomposition (SVD). The experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme meets the requirements of watermarking robustness, and also reestablishes an image like the original with average PSNR values of 59.07 dB for reconstructed images.

A Robust and Removable Watermarking Scheme Using Singular Value Decomposition

Di, Ya-Feng,Lee, Chin-Feng,Wang, Zhi-Hui,Chang, Chin-Chen,Li, Jianjun Korean Society for Internet Information 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.12

Digital watermarking techniques are widely applied to protect the integrity and copyright of digital content. In a majority of the literature for watermarking techniques, the watermarked image often causes some distortions after embedding a watermark. For image-quality-concerned users, the distortions from a watermarked image are unacceptable. In this article, we propose a removable watermarking scheme that can restore an original-like image and resist signal-processing attacks to protect the ownership of an image by utilizing the property of singular value decomposition (SVD). The experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme meets the requirements of watermarking robustness, and also reestablishes an image like the original with average PSNR values of 59.07 dB for reconstructed images.

Screening of Nitrosamine Impurities in Sartan Pharmaceuticals by GC-MS/MS

Shu-Han Chang,Hui-Yu Ho,Chi-Zong Zang,Ya-Hui Hsu,Mei-Chih Lin,Su-Hsiang Tseng,Der-Yuan Wang 사단법인 한국질량분석학회 2021 Mass spectrometry letters Vol.12 No.2

Probable human carcinogenic compounds nitrosamines, have been detected as by-product impurities in sartan phar- maceuticals in recent years which has drawn worries for medication safety. To provide a sensitive and effective method for the quality control of sartan pharmaceuticals, this study established a feasible gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC– MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of 13 nitrosamines. The target analytes were separated on a DB-WAX Ultra Inert column (30 m × 0.25 mm; i.d., 0.25 µm) and were then subjected to electron impact ionization in multiple reaction moni- toring mode. The established method was validated and further employed to analyze authentic samples. Limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) of the 13 nitrosamines were 15-250 ng/g and 50-250 ng/g, respectively, which also exhibited intra-day and inter-day accuracies of 91.4-104.8%, thereby satisfying validation criteria. Five nitrosamines, viz., N- nitrosodiethylamine, N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosodiphenylamine, N-nitrosomorpholine, and N-nitrosopiperidine were detected at concentrations above their LODs in 68 positive samples out of 594 authentic samples from seven sartans.