Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had spread rapidly since late December 2019. Personal protective equipment was essential to prevent transmission. Owing to shortage of face masks, Taiwan government began to implement quasi rationing on February 6, 2020, by allowing each resident to purchase two masks in seven days. Taiwan National Health Insurance Administration offered online data with real-time updates on face mask availability in all contracted pharmacies and selected local health centers. Based on the open data, numerous software applications quickly emerged to assist the public in finding sales locations efficiently. ⋯ Taiwan's open data strategy facilitated rapid development of software applications for information dissemination to the public during the COVID-19 crisis. The transparency of real-time data could help alleviate the panic of the public. The collaborative contributions from the grassroots in disasters were priceless treasures.
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The AHEAD (A: atrial fibrillation; H: hemoglobin; E: elderly; A: abnormal renal parameters; D: diabetes mellitus) score may be suboptimal in predicting long-term mortality in Asian patients with acute heart failure (AHF). We aimed to propose and validate a risk score incorporating easily available echocardiographic parameters to improve risk stratification in Asian patients with AHF. ⋯ UR-HEARt score, an easily accessible racial-specific risk score with integration of echocardiographic indices, improved risk stratification in Asian patients hospitalized for AHF.
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Observational Study
Specific liver volume parameters in cirrhotic patients with peribiliary cysts.
The presence of peribiliary cysts and morphological changes in the volumes of lobes in the livers of patients with cirrhosis are both related to the alteration of portal flow. Our study explored the relationship between these two features in patients with cirrhosis. ⋯ The control cirrhotic group exhibited a significantly higher mCR ratio and LHV/RHV ratio than the peribiliary cysts group did, but the two groups were similar for most measurements. Peribiliary cysts might result in reduction of portal flow, causing cirrhotic liver with peribiliary cysts with left-sided dominance not to demonstrate the typical morphological appearance of the common cirrhotic liver.
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Endometriosis is a pelvic inflammatory process, and hormonal, environmental, and genetic factors play a role in its etiopathogenesis; especially, deep pelvic endometriosis exhibits an extensive anatomical distribution. In the present study, we evaluated the contribution of routinely measured hematological parameters to the diagnosis as the number of endometriotic nodule localization increases, when evaluated with C-reactive protein (CRP) and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125. ⋯ Our study included a total of 205 patients. There was a significant difference in the CRP, CA 125, and hemoglobin levels between Group 1 and Group 2, but it was concluded that coexistence of the endometriotic nodule had no effect on the other hematological parameters. For this purpose, prospective studies with a larger number of patients are needed.