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Pei-Pei Huang,1,&ast; Samantha Yun-Kai Poon,2,&ast; Shao-Hsuan Chang,3 Chien-Wen Kuo,4 Ming-Wen Chien,1 Chien-Chih Chen,5 Shao-Chin Chiang2,6 1Division of Outpatient Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (Yang Ming Campus), Taipei, Taiwan; 3Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 4Department of Pharmacy, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 5Division of Colorectal Surgery, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan; 6Department of Pharmacy, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Shao-Chin Chiang, Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (Yang Ming Campus), Taipei, Taiwan, Tel +886-983641216, Email scchiang316@nycu.edu.tw; scchiang@kfsyscc.orgPurpose: Medication reconciliation (MedRec) is a process to ensure complete and accurate communication of patient medication information throughout care transitions to prevent medication errors. Hospitals in Taiwan have stride to implement a universal protocol for MedRec. To establish a feasible protocol indigenously, the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol was incorporated with the Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) PharmaCloud patient medication profile. The efficiency and error detection capability of this modified protocol was evaluated in two hospitals.Methods: A prospective, non-randomized, unblinded, multicenter cohort study was conducted. Subjects were recruited among patients admitted for colorectal or orthopedic surgery with at least 4 or more chronic drugs. To obtain the best possible medication history (BPMH), the control group was conducted according to the WHO protocol, and the experimental group used the modified WHO protocol with the medication data from the PharmaCloud system. The time spent on the two protocols was recorded. Admission and discharge orders were reconciled against the BPMH to identify any discrepancies. Discrepancies were evaluated by appropriateness, prescribing intentions, and types of inappropriateness. The levels of potential harm were classified for inappropriate discrepancies.Results: The mean time to obtain BPMH in the control group was 34.3± 10.8 minutes and in the experimental group 27.5± 11.5 minutes (P = 0.01). The experimental group had more subjects with discrepancies (87.9%) than the control (58.3%) (p < 0.001). The discrepancies in both admission and discharge orders for the experimental group (84.5 and 67.2%) were higher than those of the control (47.9 and 37.5%). Many inappropriate discrepancies were classified as the potential harm of level 2 (77.8%).Conclusion: Through the establishment of BPMH with the medication data from the Taiwan NHI PharmaCloud, MedRec could be achieved with greater efficiency and error detection capability in both the admission and discharge order validation processes.Keywords: medication reconciliation, prescription discrepancy, PharmaCloud, best possible medication history, BPMH

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), but its pathogenesis remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the potential neural substrates of RLS in a large sample of patients with PD.A total of 42 patients with PD with RLS and 124 patients with PD without RLS were prospectively recruited at our hospital between February 2019 and October 2020 and underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Differences between the two patient groups were assessed using voxel-based morphometry and functional connectivity analysis. PD duration, Part III of the Movement Disorder Society's Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS-III) score, and levodopa equivalent daily dose were treated as covariates.Patients with PD with RLS had significantly larger gray matter volume in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex than patients with PD without RLS (FDR-adjusted P 0.05). Compared to patients without RLS, those with RLS had significantly lower functional connectivity between the left central opercular cortex and the bilateral precentral gyri and postcentral gyri (FDR-adjusted P 0.001).Our study provides the first evidence that in patients with PD, RLS is associated with significantly larger gray matter volume in the posterior cingulate cortex and lower resting-state functional connectivity within the sensorimotor network. Our results may help clarify the pathophysiology of RLS in PD and identify possible therapeutic targets.

Purpose: To investigate the potential association between lifestyles, including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical exercise at the time of biopsy and the risk for developing end-stage renal failure (ESRF) among IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients within 10 years. Methods: A case–control study was carried out. Seventy-seven ESRF patients with the primary cause of IgAN were enrolled as cases. Seventy-seven IgAN patients who had not progressed to ESRF after being diagnosed for over 10 years served as controls. Smoking, alcohol consumption and physical exercise related data and baseline clinical features were collected from their medical records and confirmed by phone calls. Results: The case group had higher proportions of males, smokers, drinkers, and physical inactivity individuals than the controls had. Alcohol drinking history (/1 year, OR 1.32, p

The reactions of ethyl and butyl xanthates with Pb2+, Cd2+ and Zn2+ were investigated to determine the solubility products of metal xanthates using UV/Visible spectroscopic method and software WinSGW and MEDUSA. The effects of solution pH, chemical reactions and ionic strength on the determination of solubility products of metal xanthates were investigated. For a given metal, the solubility product of metal xanthate was found to decrease with the increase of the carbon chain length of the alkyl group. The determined solubility products of metal xanthates were in the order of ZnX2 > CdX2 > PbX2 and M(EX)2 > M(BX)2. The accurate Ksp constant allowed more accurate calculation of the minimal concentration of xanthate ions for treating heavy metal-containing waste water to selectively separate metal ions, avoiding the potential presence of toxic xanthates in the treated water.

BACKGROUND The Aquaporin 11 (AQP11) rs2276415 variant has been implicated in kidney disease in Type 2 diabetes. Association of the AQP11 variant with chronic kidney disease (CKD) beyond diabetic nephropathy is unknown, with no studies reported in the Chinese population. We explored the risk of CKD progression associated with the AQP11 rs2276415 variant in a population-based study in China. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study of 620 participants with CKD (Stages 2-5 and who were not receiving dialysis) at the Nephrology Center of First Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University between July 2011 and December 2014 and followed up for 3 years. Incident CKD progression, defined as an increase in creatinine levels of at least 0.4 mg/dL (35 µmol/L) above baseline or maintenance dialysis initiation or transplantation, was examined by AQP11 genotypes. RESULTS During the follow-up period, CKD progression developed in 170 individuals. Cumulative events-free survival was significantly dependent on AQP11 genotypes with an apparent gene-dose effect (log-rank P

By using phthalic acid as a soft template, we showed that it was possible to prepare a microporous aluminum-based material when the precipitation of Al(3+) was properly controlled. We also identified that this microporous aluminum-based material could be promising for the removal of fluoride ions in water treatment.

The embryonic developmental toxicity of the ionic liquid (IL) 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium bromide ([C8mim]Br) on the goldfish Carassius auratus was evaluated in this study. First, the 72 h 50% lethal concentrations (72 h-LC50) for [C8mim]Br in goldfish embryos at the stages of cleavage, early gastrula, closure of blastopore, and heart beating were determined by preliminary acute toxicity tests. After that, fish embryos in different developmental stages (cleavage, early gastrula, closure of blastopore, and heart beating) were exposed to 10.4, 20.8, 41.6, and 104 mg/L of [C8mim]Br until their hatching stage. The results of the acute toxicity tests showed that 72 h-LC50 values at the early cleavage, early gastrula, closure of blastopore, and heart beating stages of development were 208.96, 187.1, 245.03, and 298.33 mg/L, respectively. In the subchronic tests, [C8mim]Br exposure prolonged the duration of embryo dechorionation and decreased the hatching rates of the treated embryos compared to control embryos. In addition, [C8mim]Br treatment also caused remarkable increases of embryonic malformation and mortality ratio in most treatment groups. Finally, we also found that the embryonic and developmental toxicity of [C8mim]Br on fish embryos was dose-response and developmental stage-specific. These results indicate that [C8mim]Br has toxic effects on the early embryonic development of goldfish, and the risk to aquatic ecosystem by ILs leaking into the water body must be evaluated in the future. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2010.

ObjectiveTo investigate the neuroprotective effects of simvastatin on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–induced rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the mechanisms involved.MethodsHemiparkinsonian rat models were induced by stereotaxieal injection of LPS in the right substantia nigra compacta. After 2 weeks of simvastatin treatment, rotational behavior test was performed after the intraperitoneal injection of apomorphine. Expression of tyroxine hydroxylase (TH) and glial fibrillary acidic protein were analyzed through immunohistochemical staining of substantia nigra and striatum, and the level of TNF– α was evaluated using enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay.ResultsComparing with untreated group, behavioral symptoms of the rats were significantly less in the rats that received simvastatin treatment. The TH positive cell count in substantia nigra and striatum were significantly increased (P