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Purpose. This study explored the effects of genioplasty (Gep) and anterior subapical osteotomy of the maxilla and mandible (ASOMx+ASOMd) on the pharyngeal airway dimensions of patients with bimaxillary protrusion (BiP). Method. Thirty-two patients were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 received ASOMx+ASOMd, and group 2 received ASOMx+ASOMd+Gep. The cephalograms of the patients were collected before surgery and 2 months after surgery. Changes in the landmarks, related cephalometric angles (gonial, SN-GoGn, Y -axis, and SN-C2C4 angles), and 2 pharyngeal airway dimensions (uvulo-pharyngeal airway [UOP] and tongue–pharyngeal airway [TOP]) were analyzed. Results. Before surgery, the parameters (incisor superius, incisor inferius, menton, most superior and anterior point of the hyoid bone, tip of the uvula, inferoanterior point on the second cervical vertebra, and inferoanterior point on the fourth cervical vertebra) and measured angles (SNA, SNB, ANB, gonial, SN-GoGn, Y -axis, and C4C2-SN) of both groups showed no significant differences. Following ASOMx, the patients in groups 1 and 2 exhibited a setback by 7.0 and 6.6 mm, respectively. After ASOMd, groups 1 and 2 exhibited 4.9 and 5.3 mm setbacks, respectively. No significant difference in the amount of setback was observed between groups 1 and 2. The postoperative horizontal and vertical positions of Me in group 2 were significantly forward by 6.1 mm and upward by 1.5 mm, respectively. Regarding pharyngeal airway dimensions, TOP was decreased in group 1 (1.7 mm) and group 2 (1.3 mm). In the postoperative Pearson correlation coefficient test, the horizontal and vertical positions of Me showed no significant correlation with TOP in both groups. Therefore, Gep did not prevent the reduction of TOP in group 2. Conclusion. After bimaxillary anterior subapical osteotomy, the TOP of patients with BiP was decreased, and this situation was unavoidable, regardless of whether Gep was performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a pre‐emptive genetic test that comprises multiple predisposing alleles for the prevention of phenytoin‐related severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs), three sets of patients with phenytoin‐SCAR and drug‐tolerant controls from Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan, were enrolled for this study. In addition to cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C9*3, we found that HLA‐B*13:01,HLA‐B*15:02, and HLA‐B*51:01 were significantly associated with phenytoin hypersensitivity with distinct phenotypic specificities. Strikingly, we showed an increase in predictive sensitivity of concurrently testing CYP2C9*3/HLA‐B*13:01/HLA‐B*15:02/HLA‐B*51:01 from 30.5–71.9% for selecting the individuals with the risk of developing phenytoin‐SCAR in Taiwanese cohorts, accompanied by a specificity of 77.7% (combined sensitivity, 64.7%; specificity, 71.9% for three Asian populations). Meta‐analysis of the four combined risk alleles showed significant associations with phenytoin‐SCAR in three Asian populations. In conclusion, combining the assessment of risk alleles of HLA and CYP2C9 potentiated the usefulness of predictive genetic tests to prevent phenytoin hypersensitivity in Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Displacement time histories from double-integrated accelerograms typically cannot be used to recover near-field terms because of noise in the acceleration traces. To minimize this problem, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is used to derive a baseline correction scheme. The scheme is tested against several models composed of a single frequency or two frequencies and offsets in acceleration. It is verified against real displacement time history using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) measurement. For single- and double-frequency-content models, obvious discontinuities are found at drift times for lower intrinsic mode function (IMF) components. A drift model, however, can be clearly found from summing higher IMFs and the residuals of simple frequency-content waveform models. On the other hand, results show that the lesser frequency-content signal has the greater decomposed result. Therefore, a suitable corner frequency for low-pass filtering is first implemented to reduce frequency content. In this case, the trend in the given drift model is easily found by summing higher IMFs for a complex frequency content model (model 3 of this study). A suitable corner frequency for low-pass filtering is attained using a grid-search method. A new semiautomatic EMD-derived baseline correction scheme is tested. The corrected coseismic deformation value (CDV, denoted hereafter as from preevent displacement to the final offset during strong motion), peak ground displacement, and displacement time history from this method have good agreement with 1-Hz continuous GPS measurement for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: The cutoff of abdominal circumference for metabolic syndrome (MS) defined by the Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP) of Taiwan for Taiwanese (men, 90cm; women, 80cm) and by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) for Japanese (men, 85cm; women, 90cm) differs. This study aimed to examine the impact of this difference on the prevalence of MS and the impact of an MS diagnosis on the projected risk of stroke in hypertensive Taiwanese. Methods: MS was examined in a sample of 3,472 hypertensive patients (aged 55–80 years; 1,709 women) across Taiwan. The 10-year probability of stroke estimated from the Framingham equation was compared between MS and non-MS patients. Results: The prevalence of MS using the BHP criteria was 59.2% using the BHP criteria (95% confidence interval, CI, 57.6–60.8%; men, 52.5%; women, 66.1%) and 48.9% by the IDF criteria (95% CI, 47.2–50.5%; men, 61.3%; women, 36.1%). Both criteria showed that, compared with non-MS, MS has higher predicted 10-year probability of stroke (BHP, 0.153 ± 0.115 vs. 0.133 ± 0.105; IDF, 0.159 ± 0.109 vs. 0.132 ± 0.112; both p < 0.001) because of the difference in women (BHP, 0.143 ± 0.124 vs. 0.102 ± 0.091; IDF, 0.147 ± 0.121 vs. 0.118 ± 0.110; both p < 0.001) rather than men (BHP, p = 0.21; IDF, p = 0.29). Conclusion: Both criteria demonstrate that MS is highly prevalent in elderly hypertensive patients in Taiwan. Additionally in women, but not men, the predicted probability of stroke is higher in MS than in non-MS patients. The diagnosis of MS is potentially useful for identifying elderly hypertensive females with an elevated risk of stroke in Taiwan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article investigates the return autocorrelation in four stock markets around the Asia-Pacific rim: the USA, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The results indicate that there are conditional return autocorrelation in Taiwan's and South Korea's stock markets for daily data. Moreover, there are negative relationships between autocorrelation and two factors (trading volume and return volatility) significantly in Taiwan and South Korea, implying that the stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea are not as efficient as those in developed countries (the USA and Japan). For weekly data, however, none of the above four markets has significant return autocorrelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the plasma level of adiponectin is related to metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular events, a low plasma adiponectin level may either cause or trigger cardiovascular disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a low adiponectin level contributes to cardiovascular events, and to investigate the factors influencing adiponectin in the Japanese Arita-cho cohort study.We followed about 2000 subjects in Arita-cho, Saga, Japan as a cohort study, and we enrolled 637 subjects (205 men; 65.1±8.3 years old) who participated in annual health checks from 2005 to 2008 and underwent measurement of the plasma adiponectin level and an oral glucose tolerance test. We monitored the incidence of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular events in these subjects until the end of 2010, discontinuing follow-up at 3 years after the start of enrollment. Subjects with low plasma adiponectin levels (<10.5 ng ml(-1)) had a higher incidence of newly diagnosed cardiovascular diseases such as acute heart failure or acute myocardial infarction than those with high plasma adiponectin levels (≥10.5 ng ml(-1)) over an average of 2.95 years of follow-up. Multivariate analysis showed that the adiponectin level was predicted by the following parameters in all subjects: age (β=0.16), male gender (β=-0.267), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (β=-0.140) and the plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β=0.104), uric acid (β=-0.13), triglycerides (β=-0.169) and brain natriuretic peptide (β=0.151). The difference in plasma glucose before and 120 min after the intake of a 75-g glucose load did not influence the plasma adiponectin level. The plasma adiponectin level is useful for predicting cardiovascular events, and is a measure of the risk of lifestyle-related diseases.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), is a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by intractable inflammation specific to the gastrointestinal tract. The precise etiology of IBD remains unknown. Recently, haplotypes of peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 (PADI4) have been identified as the rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-susceptible gene. PADI4 is located at 1p36, which is one of chromosomal loci susceptible for IBD. Then, we examined whether haplotypes and diplotypes of PADI4 are associated with IBD in the Japanese population. We studied haplotypes of PADI4 in 114 patients with UC, 83 patients with CD, and 200 gender-matched healthy controls by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Frequencies and distributions of haplotypes and diplotypes were compared statistically between patients and controls by logistic regression analysis. The frequency of haplotype 1 was significantly decreased in patients with UC, compared to that in controls (P=0.037; odds ratio (OR)=0.702). In contrast, the frequency of haplotype 2 in patients with UC was significantly higher than that in controls (P=0.003; OR=1.722). Moreover, of a total of 114 patients with UC, 15 (13.2%) had a diplotype homozygous for haplotype 2, the frequency being significantly higher than in controls (9/200, 4.5%; P=0.008, OR=3.215). Our results indicate that haplotype 1 of PADI4 is associated with non-susceptibility to UC, whereas haplotype 2 is susceptible to UC. Thus, it is likely that PADI4 is one of genetic determinants of UC in the Japanese population.

Objective: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of advanced colorectal cancer which was 30 mm or smaller in diameter., Methods: Retrospective analysis documented 80 patients with small advanced colorectal cancer from May 1985 to May 2002. According to the diameter of tumors, all patients were divided into three groups: Group A (10 mm or less), Group B (11-20 mm), Group C (21-30 mm). Considering the number of patients in Group A was smaller, we combined Group A with Group B as Group D. Then various clinicopathological characteristics were compared between Group C and Group D., Results: The most common site of small advanced colorectal cancer was sigmoid colon and rectum that accounted for 36.2% and 35.0% of all cases. The average diameter of total tumors was 23.3 mm. Type 2 was the most common macroscopic type (63.7%) and the moderate differentiation was seen in 77.5% of cases. Thirty-eight (47.5%) cases had lymph node metastasis. Three (3.8%) cases had liver metastasis and three (3.8%) cases had peritoneal metastasis. The frequency of lymph node metastasis was found significantly different between Group C and Group D (54.2% vs. 28.6%, P < 0.05) , as well as between the groups with different depth of invasion (P < 0.05). Curability A resection was performed in 69 (86.2%) cases., Conclusions: Tumor size and depth of invasion are related to lymph node metastasis in small advanced colorectal cancer. However, the small size of tumor may not always be a reliable parameter for estimating the risk of lymph node metastasis. Small colorectal cancers also do not always mean the early stage. Surgeons should be aware of the features of small advanced colorectal cancers to select ideal management and perform perfect resection.