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Dengue‐related ocular complications were considered rare, but recent evidence points to a broader spectrum of manifestations, including uveitis. This study utilized the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to investigate the incidence of uveitis in dengue patients, aiming to fill this research gap. This population‐based, retrospective cohort study utilized the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) and included patients with and without Dengue fever. The non‐Dengue fever cohort comprised randomly selected control patients who were matched. Hazard ratios and Kaplan–Meier analysis were conducted to compare the incidence of uveitis in the Dengue and non‐Dengue cohorts. Subgroup analyses were carried out based on age groups, genders, and comorbidities. A total of 26 950 patients diagnosed with Dengue fever were included in the study (49.6% female, mean age at index 41.63 years). Based on a 1:4 matching ratio, 107 800 control subjects without uveitis (50.03% female, mean age at index 41.41 years) were also included. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of uveitis was higher in the Dengue fever group than in the non‐Dengue fever group (aHR = 1.38, p < 0.001). A history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) was not associated with uveitis. Stratified analyses revealed that patients with Dengue fever had an increased risk regardless of their sex and age. The Kaplan–Meier method with the log‐rank test showed a significantly higher cumulative incidence of uveitis in the Dengue fever cohort than in the non‐Dengue fever cohort (p < 0.001). In the subgroup analysis for most major comorbidities, the significantly higher risk for uveitis in those patients with Dengue fever, was only demonstrated in the subgroups of those without these major comorbidities. Our findings showed Dengue infection to be associated with increased risk for uveitis. Clinicians should be attentive to a history of stroke or TIA in patients with Dengue fever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have comprehensively investigated the occurrence of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) among solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. This study investigated the risk of PJP after organ transplantation. Each patient who underwent SOT was propensity-score-matched with four non-SOT individuals in terms of sex, age, insured salary, urbanization of residence, comorbidities, and year of enrollment. When considering the 3-year follow-up, the patients who had undergone SOT were at higher risk of PJP, with the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) being 17.18 (95% confidence interval (CI): 8.80–33.53). Furthermore, SOT recipients were also at higher PJP risk than the patients without SOT at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years, with the aOR being 22.64 (95% CI: 7.53–68.11), 26.19 (95% CI: 9.89–69.37), and 23.06 (95% CI: 10.23–51.97), respectively. Patients comorbid with HIV infection, hematological malignancies, or vasculitis were at higher risk (aOR = 59.08, 95% CI = 20.30–171.92), (aOR = 11.94, 95% CI = 5.36–26.61), and (aOR = 21.72, 95% CI = 2.41–195.81), respectively. The recipients of SOT were at higher risk of PJP, and PJP can develop at any stage after transplantation. SOT recipients comorbid with HIV, hematologic malignancies, or vasculitis were at higher PJP risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since OpenAI released ChatGPT, with its strong capability in handling natural tasks and its user-friendly interface, it has garnered significant attention., Objective: A prospective analysis is required to evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of medication consultation responses generated by ChatGPT., Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted by the pharmacy department of a medical center in Taiwan. The test data set comprised retrospective medication consultation questions collected from February 1, 2023, to February 28, 2023, along with common questions about drug-herb interactions. Two distinct sets of questions were tested: real-world medication consultation questions and common questions about interactions between traditional Chinese and Western medicines. We used the conventional double-review mechanism. The appropriateness of each response from ChatGPT was assessed by 2 experienced pharmacists. In the event of a discrepancy between the assessments, a third pharmacist stepped in to make the final decision., Results: Of 293 real-world medication consultation questions, a random selection of 80 was used to evaluate ChatGPT's performance. ChatGPT exhibited a higher appropriateness rate in responding to public medication consultation questions compared to those asked by health care providers in a hospital setting (31/51, 61% vs 20/51, 39%; P=.01)., Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that ChatGPT could potentially be used for answering basic medication consultation questions. Our analysis of the erroneous information allowed us to identify potential medical risks associated with certain questions; this problem deserves our close attention., (©Hsing-Yu Hsu, Kai-Cheng Hsu, Shih-Yen Hou, Ching-Lung Wu, Yow-Wen Hsieh, Yih-Dih Cheng. Originally published in JMIR Medical Education (https://mededu.jmir.org), 21.08.2023.)

Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) microspectroscopic mapping can be used to distinguish between different tissue structures, and to increase the image contrast between normal and cancerous regions of a given tissue sample. This study demonstrates the biochemical changes associated with a consistent link between cancerous tissue and various molecular changes in the IR spectra of human pancreatic cancer tissue using FT-IR mapping. Tissue samples were obtained immediately after resection in a patient who underwent a distal pancreatectomy including the pancreatic body and tail. The biochemical imaging changes of lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids in human pancreatic cancer tissue were analyzed via FT-IR microspectroscopy, using imaging, mapping, and line scan techniques. The intensities and frequencies of the absorption bands in the IR spectra of human pancreatic cancerous tissue were markedly reduced and shifted, particularly in the amide bands of protein and CH2 and CH3 stretching vibrations of lipids. The cancerous tissue contained significant protein content, and the distributions of DNA and lipid were very low, indicating low amounts of nucleic acids and lipids in human pancreatic cancer tissue. The analytical results indicate that these FT-IR microspectroscopic biochemical images reflect the distribution of cell components, which could be correlated with stained tissue in adenocarcinoma in pancreatic tissues. This study with samples of noncancerous and cancerous pancreatic tissues has clearly demonstrated that FT-IR microspectroscopy using the mapping method can be used for diagnosis.