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This population-based longitudinal follow-up study showed a protective effect of tea consumption against osteoporosis, particularly among women and middle-aged people. High tea consumption was also associated with a reduced risk of hip fracture.To investigate the association of tea consumption with the risks of osteoporosis and hip fracture.This study used the Keelung Community-based Integrated Screening database and Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 42,742 subjects aged 45 to 74 years were enrolled. Each was classified as no tea consumption, low tea consumption, and high tea consumption, according to the results of an eating habits questionnaire. The diagnosis of osteoporosis and hip fracture was based on BMD measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the X-ray findings. The median follow-up time was 8.5 years.As compared with the no tea consumption group, the osteoporosis HRs for the low tea consumption and high tea consumption groups were 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.80-0.96) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.80-0.94), respectively. Among those participants aged 59 or below, the osteoporosis HRs for low tea consumption and high tea consumption (vs. no tea consumption) were 0.85 (95% CI 0.74-0.96) and 0.79 (95% CI 0.69-0.90). The HRs of hip fracture for the low tea consumption and high tea consumption groups (vs. no tea consumption) were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67-1.08) and 0.69 (95% CI 0.55-0.86), respectively.Tea consumption was linked to a lower risk of osteoporosis, particularly among women and middle-aged people. High tea consumption was also associated with a reduced risk of hip fracture.

There is paucity of the statistical model that is specified for data on imported COVID-19 cases with the unique global information on infectious properties of SARS-CoV-2 variant different from local outbreak data used for estimating transmission and infectiousness parameters via the established epidemic models. To this end, a new approach with a four-state stochastic model was proposed to formulate these well-established infectious parameters with three new parameters, including the pre-symptomatic incidence rate, the median of pre-symptomatic transmission time (MPTT) to symptomatic state, and the incidence (proportion) of asymptomatic cases using imported COVID-19 data. We fitted the proposed stochastic model to empirical data on imported COVID-19 cases from D614G to Omicron with the corresponding calendar periods according to the classification GISAID information on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variant between March 2020 and Jan 2022 in Taiwan. The pre-symptomatic incidence rate was the highest for Omicron followed by Alpha, Delta, and D614G. The MPTT (in days) increased from 3.45 (first period) ~ 4.02 (second period) of D614G until 3.94-4.65 of VOC Alpha but dropped to 3.93-3.49 of Delta and 2 days (only first period) of Omicron. The proportion of asymptomatic cases increased from 29% of D-614G period to 59.2% of Omicron. Modeling data on imported cases across strains of SARS-CoV-2 not only bridges the link between the underlying natural infectious properties elucidated in the previous epidemic models and different disease phenotypes of COVID-19 but also provides precision quarantine and isolation policy for border control in the face of various emerging SRAS-CoV-2 variants globally.

Background The AACC Academy revised the reproductive testing section of the Laboratory Medicine Practice Guidelines: Evidence-Based Practice for Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) published in 2007. Methods A panel of Academy members with expertise in POCT and laboratory medicine was formed to develop guidance for the use of POCT in reproductive health, specifically ovulation, pregnancy, premature rupture of membranes (PROM), and high-risk deliveries. The committee was supplemented with clinicians having Emergency Medicine and Obstetrics/Gynecology training. Results Key recommendations include the following. First, urine luteinizing hormone (LH) tests are accurate and reliable predictors of ovulation. Studies have shown that the use of ovulation predicting kits may improve the likelihood of conception among healthy fertile women seeking pregnancy. Urinary LH point-of-care testing demonstrates a comparable performance among other ovulation monitoring methods for timing intrauterine insemination and confirming sufficient ovulation induction before oocyte retrieval during in vitro fertilization. Second, pregnancy POCT should be considered in clinical situations where rapid diagnosis of pregnancy is needed for treatment decisions, and laboratory analysis cannot meet the required turnaround time. Third, PROM testing using commercial kits alone is not recommended without clinical signs of rupture of membranes, such as leakage of amniotic fluid from the cervical opening. Finally, fetal scalp lactate is used more than fetal scalp pH for fetal acidosis due to higher success rate and low volume of sample required. Conclusions This revision of the AACC Academy POCT guidelines provides recommendations for best practice use of POCT in fertility and reproduction.

Classic diffusely infiltrating lobular carcinoma has imaging features divergent from the breast cancers originating from the terminal ductal lobular units and from the major lactiferous ducts. Although the term “invasive lobular carcinoma” implies a site of origin within the breast lobular epithelium, we were unable to find evidence supporting this assumption. Exceptional excess of fibrous connective tissue and the unique cell architecture combined with the aberrant features at breast imaging suggest that this breast malignancy has not originated from cells lining the breast ducts and lobules. The only remaining relevant component of the fibroglandular tissue is the mesenchyme. The cells freshly isolated and cultured from diffusely infiltrating lobular carcinoma cases contained epithelial–mesenchymal hybrid cells with both epithelial and mesenchymal properties. The radiologic and histopathologic features of the tumours and expression of the mesenchymal stem cell positive markers CD73, CD90, and CD105 all suggest development in the direction of mesenchymal transition. These hybrid cells have tumour-initiating potential and have been shown to have poor prognosis and resistance to therapy targeted for malignancies of breast epithelial origin. Our work emphasizes the need for new approaches to the diagnosis and therapy of this highly fatal breast cancer subtype.

Background: While a population-wide strategy involving lifestyle changes and a high-risk strategy involving pharmacological interventions have been described, the recently proposed personalized medicine approach combining both strategies for the prevention of hypertension has increasingly gained attention. However, a cost-effectiveness analysis has been hardly addressed. This study was set out to build a Markov analytical decision model with a variety of prevention strategies in order to conduct an economic analysis for tailored preventative methods. Methods: The Markov decision model was used to perform an economic analysis of four preventative strategies: usual care, a population-based universal approach, a population-based high-risk approach, and a personalized strategy. In all decisions, the cohort in each prevention method was tracked throughout time to clarify the four-state model-based natural history of hypertension. Utilizing the Monte Carlo simulation, a probabilistic cost-effectiveness analysis was carried out. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated to estimate the additional cost to save an additional life year. Results: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) for the personalized preventive strategy versus those for standard care were -USD 3317 per QALY gained, whereas they were, respectively, USD 120,781 and USD 53,223 per Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) gained for the population-wide universal approach and the population-based high-risk approach. When the ceiling ratio of willingness to pay was USD 300,000, the probability of being cost-effective reached 74% for the universal approach and was almost certain for the personalized preventive strategy. The equivalent analysis for the personalized strategy against a general plan showed that the former was still cost-effective. Conclusions: To support a health economic decision model for the financial evaluation of hypertension preventative measures, a personalized four-state natural history of hypertension model was created. The personalized preventive treatment appeared more cost-effective than population-based conventional care. These findings are extremely valuable for making hypertension-based health decisions based on precise preventive medication.

Supplementary Information About Part I and Part II. Supplementary Figure S1. Study design for data collection and relating the hemoglobin concentration of FIT to CRC. Supplementary Figure S2. The relationships between the proportion of colonoscopy examination and sensitivity or specificity. Supplementary Table S1. Sensitivity and specificity of OC-sensor by different thresholds Supplementary Table S2. Age-/sex-specific quantity of colonoscopy by various methods

Background: Despite age and sex differences in fecal hemoglobin (f-Hb) concentrations, most fecal immunochemical test (FIT) screening programs use population-average cut-points for test positivity. The impact of age/sex-specific threshold on FIT accuracy and colonoscopy demand for colorectal cancer screening are unknown.Methods: Using data from 723,113 participants enrolled in a Taiwanese population-based colorectal cancer screening with single FIT between 2004 and 2009, sensitivity and specificity were estimated for various f-Hb thresholds for test positivity. This included estimates based on a “universal” threshold, receiver-operating-characteristic curve–derived threshold, targeted sensitivity, targeted false-positive rate, and a colonoscopy-capacity-adjusted method integrating colonoscopy workload with and without age/sex adjustments.Results: Optimal age/sex-specific thresholds were found to be equal to or lower than the universal 20 μg Hb/g threshold. For older males, a higher threshold (24 μg Hb/g) was identified using a 5% false-positive rate. Importantly, a nonlinear relationship was observed between sensitivity and colonoscopy workload with workload rising disproportionately to sensitivity at 16 μg Hb/g. At this “colonoscopy-capacity-adjusted” threshold, the test positivity (colonoscopy workload) was 4.67% and sensitivity was 79.5%, compared with a lower 4.0% workload and a lower 78.7% sensitivity using 20 μg Hb/g. When constrained on capacity, age/sex-adjusted estimates were generally lower. However, optimizing age/-sex-adjusted thresholds increased colonoscopy demand across models by 17% or greater compared with a universal threshold.Conclusions: Age/sex-specific thresholds improve FIT accuracy with modest increases in colonoscopy demand.Impact: Colonoscopy-capacity-adjusted and age/sex-specific f-Hb thresholds may be useful in optimizing individual screening programs based on detection accuracy, population characteristics, and clinical capacity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(6); 704–9. ©2018 AACR.

Background: Mass screening of high-risk populations for oral cancer has proven to be effective in reducing oral cancer mortality. However, the magnitude of the effectiveness of the various screening scenarios has rarely been addressed. Methods: We developed a simulation algorithm for a prospective cohort under various oral cancer screening scenarios. A hypothetical cohort of 8 million participants aged ≥30 years with cigaret smoking and/or betel quid chewing habits was constructed based on parameters extracted from studies on oral cancer screening. The results of a population-based screening program in Taiwan and a randomized controlled trial in India were used to validate the fitness; then, the effectiveness of the model was determined by changing the screening parameters. Results: There was a reduction in the risk of advanced oral cancer by 40% (relative risk [RR] = 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.59-0.62) and oral cancer mortality by 29% (RR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.69-0.73) at the 6-year follow-up in a screening scenario similar to the biennial screening in Taiwan, with a 55.1% attendance rate and 92.6% referral rate. The incremental effect in reducing advanced oral cancer was approximately 5% with a short 1-year screening frequency, and the corresponding reduction in mortality was, on average, 6.5%. The incremental reduction in advanced oral cancer per 10% increase in the compliance rate was 3% to 4%, while only 1% to 2% reduction was noted per 10% increase in the referral rate. The effectiveness of screening in reducing advanced oral cancer was 5% to 6% less when both betel quid chewing and alcohol drinking habits were present. Conclusion: Our computer simulation model demonstrated the effect of screening on the reduction in oral cancer mortality under various scenarios. The results provide screening policymakers with the necessary guidance to implement screening programs to save lives.

Background We aimed to investigate factors associated with personal self-protection in infection control among dental care workers. Methods A cross-sectional survey with self-report questionnaire was conducted between Jan and Dec, 2018. 275 dentists and 298 dental assistants were enrolled from randomly selected dental care settings.Results Compliance with wearing hair caps, facial masks, and hand washing is not as high as oral masks and gloves (over 90%). For dentists, the level of clinical setting (aOR=3.1, PConclusions Gender, the length of work practice, and correct techniques for sterilization use were identified as major factors associated with compliance with self-protection in infection control among dental care workers.

In the 5G massive machine type communication (mMTC) scenario, user equipment with poor signal quality requires numerous repetitions to compensate for the additional signal attenuation. However, an excessive number of repetitions consumes additional wireless resources, decreasing the transmission rate, and increasing the energy consumption. An insufficient number of repetitions prevents the successful deciphering of the data by the receivers, leading to a high bit error rate. The present study developed adaptive repetition approaches with the k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) to substantially increase network transmission efficacy for the enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) system in the 5G mMTC scenario. The simulation results showed that the proposed repetition with the learning approach effectively improved the probability of successful transmission, the resource utilization, the average number of repetitions, and the average energy consumption. It is therefore more suitable for the eMTC system in the mMTC scenario than the common lookup table.

AimThe aim of this study was to compare the validity of different machine learning algorithms to develop and validate predictive models for periodontitis.Materials and MethodsUsing national survey data from Taiwan (n = 3453) and the United States (n = 3685), predictors of periodontitis were extracted from the datasets and pre-processed, and then 10 machine learning algorithms were trained to develop predictive models. The models were validated both internally (bootstrap sampling) and externally (alternative country's dataset). The algorithms were compared across six performance metrics ([i] area under the curve for the receiver operating characteristic [AUC], [ii] accuracy, [iii] sensitivity, [iv] specificity, [v] positive predictive value, and [vi] negative predictive value) and two methods of data pre-processing ([i] machine-learning-based feature selection and [ii] dimensionality reduction into principal components).ResultsMany algorithms showed extremely strong performance during internal validation (AUC > 0.95, accuracy > 95%). However, this was not replicated in external validation, where predictive performance of all algorithms dropped off drastically. Furthermore, predictive performance differed according to data pre-processing methodology and the cohort on which they were trained.ConclusionsLarger sample sizes and more complex predictors of periodontitis are required before machine learning can be leveraged to its full potential.

Clarification of potential factors affecting the occurrence of accidental sharps injuries among students in dental laboratories would likely help to reduce the incidence of such injuries, thus improving dental education, as well as further preventing injury in general healthcare workspaces. In this study, undergraduates at the College of Oral Medicine, Taipei Medical University, were assessed for 10 items: gender, age, course specialty, whether or not framed glasses were worn during operations, speed of assignment completion, dominant hand, self-assessment of performance, whether or not students previewed the classes in advance, sleep duration, and sharps injury experience. The results suggested that course specialty and sleep duration were the major factors associated with the occurrence of sharps injuries among students in the dental laboratory.

BACKGROUND The aging population of Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) in Asia was faced with a great challenge on excessive all-cause mortality during COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies were conducted to assess whether and to what extent excess deaths were affected by Baby Boomers susceptible to various SARS-CoV-2 mutants. OBJECTIVE We aimed to report a unique Taiwan scenario on how Baby Boomers affected all-cause excess deaths compared with non-Baby Boomers in different periods of SARS-CoV-2 mutants during COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS The interrupted time series design was proposed to build up the background mortality model before COVID-19 pandemic for predicting the expected all-cause deaths in comparison with the reported figures during the COVID-19 pandemic period base on 23,186,278 Taiwan residents in 2002 composed of 5,307,761 Baby Boomers aged 58-76 years and 17,878,517 non-Baby Boomers whose deaths preponderated in 77 years or older. The interaction between whether the cohort belongs to Baby Boomers and time trend was assessed by using the Poisson time-series regression model. RESULTS Given the background mortality that shows an increasing trend for Baby Boomers but constant trend for non-Baby Boomers, Baby Boomers had less 2% negative excess in 2020 (D614G) and more 3% excess deaths in 2021 (Alpha and Delta) compared with non-Baby Boomers. In large outbreaks of Omicron VOC in 2022, excess mortality rose up to 9% and 10% for Baby Boomers and non-Baby Boomers. Interestingly, Baby Boomers aged 58-76 year had the same 9% excess mortality as non-Baby Boomers aged 77 years or older. Baby Boomers had higher non-COVID-19 deaths than non-Baby Boomers (33% vs 29%). CONCLUSIONS Baby Boomers had as much as COVID-19 deaths and more non-COVID-19 deaths compared with the older non-Baby Boomers during COVID-19 pandemic. Low accessibility to medical care and insufficient medical capacity may account for substantial excess mortality in Baby Boomers.

Background Household transmission is responsible for the subsequent outbreak of community-acquired COVID-19. The aim of this study was to elucidate the household transmission mode and to further estimate effective and basic reproductive number with and without non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Materials and Methods A total of 26 households with 39 family contacts between January, 2020 and February, 2021 in Taiwan were enrolled for analysis. The Becker’s chain binomial model was used to analyze the probabilities of being infected and escaped from SARS-COV-2 before and after January 1st, 2021, which were further converted to estimating basic reproductive numbers in the absence of NPIs. The likelihood of leading to the subsequent community-acquired outbreak given NPIs was further assessed. Results The secondary attack rate was 46.2%. Given the saturated Greenwood mode selected as the best fitted model, the probability of infected and escaped from COVID-19 within household was estimated as 44.4% (95% CI: 5.0%-53.7%) and 55.7% (95% CI: 46.3%-65.0%), respectively. In the second period of early 2021, the infected probability was increased to 58.3% (95% CI: 12.7%-90.0%)) and the escape probability was lowered to 41.7% (95% CI: 0.0%-86.9%)). The corresponding basic reproductive numbers (R0) increased from 4.29 in the first period to 6.73 in the second period without NPIs. However, none of subsequent community-acquired outbreak was noted in Taiwan given very effective NPIs in both periods. Conclusions The proposed method and results are useful for designing household-specific containment measures and NPIs to stamp out a large-scale community-acquired outbreak as demonstrated in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the periodontal primary care (PPC) on the improvement of periodontal probing depth based on a periodontist's 30-year practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS We enrolled a total of 2,894 patients who underwent periodontal basic treatment between 1987 and 2017 with 84.5% retention rate. The study population was composed of 80% (n = 1,946) of retained patients with complete re-evaluation up to five-year follow-up. The outcome was measured by the improvement of probing depths (graded as 1:1-3 mm; 2:4-6 mm; 3: ≥7 mm) before and after PPC on both sextant and patient levels. Whether a better improvement was seen in the surgical group and the non-smoker group opposed to their comparators was assessed with various multi-variable regression models. RESULTS On patient (sextant) level, 82% (38%) improved, 13% (59%) unchanged, and 5% (3%) deteriorated. Adjusted better improvement of probing depth was noted for the surgical group by 63% and non-smoker by 31% compared with their counterparts. The similar findings were found for the outcomes based on continuous probing depth scores. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrate the improvement of probing depth scores with a periodontal primary care offered for the retained patients and larger effect for the surgical group and non-smoker patients.