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Abstract This population-based study investigated the risk of having had prior herpes zoster within five years preceding a diagnosis of head and neck cancer. We conducted a case-control study that included 9,191 patients with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer in Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010 and 36,764 matched controls. We assessed the odds of patients with head and neck cancer having had a diagnosis of herpes zoster during the five years preceding head and neck cancer using multiple logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of prior herpes zoster among the total sample was 4.6%, 7.9% and 3.8% among patients with and without head and neck cancer, respectively (p

Abstract Little is known about a possible association of autoimmune inner ear disease among patients diagnosed with polymyositis (PM)/dermatomyositis (DM). This study aimed to explore differences in the prevalence of inner ear symptoms among patients with and without PM/DM using a nationwide population-based dataset. Data for this study were retrieved from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The study sample included 1622 patients diagnosed with PM/DM and 8109 propensity-score matched comparison patients without PM/DM. We performed multivariate logistic regressions to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for tinnitus, hearing loss, sudden deafness, and vertigo among patients with PM/DM versus comparison patients. Chi-square tests showed statistically significant differences between patients with PM/DM and comparison patients in the prevalence of tinnitus (16.1% vs. 12.7%, p

Abstract While Human Papillomavirus (HPV) particles have been detected in a small proportion of benign thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer cases, a role of HPV in these thyroid conditions has not been established. This study aims to investigate the association of HPV infection with thyroid cancer (TC) using a nationwide population-based study. We retrieved data for this case–control study from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010. The study sample included 3062 patients with TC and 9186 propensity-scored matched controls. We employed multivariate logistic regression models to quantitatively evaluate the association of TC with HPV infections after taking age, sex, monthly income, geographic location and urbanization level of the patient's residence, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia into considerations. Chi-squared test revealed that there was a significant difference in the prevalence of prior HPV infections between patients with TC and controls (15.3% vs. 7.6%, p

PurposeThis study aimed to examines the long-term trend of incidence of peripheral vestibular disorders between 2010 and 2018 in Taiwan.MethodsStudy-eligible patients were identified from Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 maintained by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan. We retrieved 230,566 patients with a first-time diagnosis of peripheral vestibular disorders between 2010 and 2018. We calculated annual incidence rates of peripheral vestibular disorders per 100,000 population. We used the annual percent change (APC) to test the trend of peripheral vestibular disorders over time.ResultsThe mean annual incidence rate of peripheral vestibular disorders during the study period was 1489.6 per 100,000 population. Incidence showed a statistically significant steady decrease from 2010 to 2018 with a mean APC of −6.15% (95% CI = −6.97% ~ −5.32%). The decline was led by Meniere’s disease (APC = −9.83, 95% CI = −10.66% ~ −8.99%), followed by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (APC = −3.69, 95% CI = −4.53% ~ −3.03%), vestibular neuritis (APC = −7.85, 95% CI = -8.96 ~ −6.73), and other peripheral vestibular dizziness (APC = −5.56, 95% CI = −6.69% ~ −4.43%).ConclusionThe incidence of peripheral vestibular disorders, overall, and the four major subgroups, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, Meniere’s disease, vestibular neuritis, and other peripheral vestibular dizziness, all decreased substantially, year by year within the 2010–2018 period.

Post-irradiation xerostomia remains a significant quality of life concern for patients with head and neck cancers. Conventional therapies offer limited effectiveness. This study aims to investigate the therapeutic potential of office-based salivary ductal steroid irrigation in patients with post-irradiation xerostomia. This single-center observational study recruited 147 head and neck cancer patients suffering from post-irradiation xerostomia between November 2020 and October 2022. All included subjects received at least one round of successful salivary ductal cannulation and irrigation. The primary measure of efficacy was improvement in subjective xerostomia and objective salivary amylase levels. A logistic regression was employed to evaluate factors affecting treatment responsiveness. The response rate among nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients was 74.8%, and that among non-NPC cancer was 65.6%, without significant intergroup differences. The statistical analysis revealed no significant influence of age, gender, or disease stage on treatment responsiveness. Post-treatment salivary amylase levels were significantly higher in responsive non-NPC patients. In conclusion, salivary ductal steroid irrigation emerged as a promising therapeutic modality for the management of post-irradiation xerostomia in head and neck cancer patients. While no explicit factors were predictive of responsiveness, the high rate of symptom improvement suggests that this therapy may be a viable alternative for patients that are refractory to standard treatments.

Research has confirmed that there are physical and mental benefits associated with performing horticultural activities, such as being in contact with soil and viewing plants. In addition, due to the rapidly increasing volume of affective neuroscience research, it is now possible to understand emotional processing in the brain through neuroimaging. The present study was conducted to explore subjects’ emotional responses after participating in horticultural activities, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the Profile of Mood States used for physiological and psychological measurements, respectively. First, the subjects’ baseline brain activation levels were determined before any engagement in horticultural activities. A week later, the subjects participated in a 5-week horticultural activity. fMRI was used to detect physiological changes during the different stages of the activity—namely, preparation and sowing, fertilizing and weeding, and harvesting. The findings show that the functional connectivity of the brain regions was activated, including the emotional prosody network. Hence, this study provides evidence that gardening can stimulate functional connectivity, activation of positive emotions, and mindfulness in the brain. The findings provide a neuroscientific understanding of the types of horticultural activities that increase positive emotions, meditation, creativity, attention, and relaxation and reduce depression.

Abstract Objectives The development of sialolithiasis is commonly related to local factors, such as the retrograde migration of foods, bacteria, or foreign bodies from the oral cavity. The association of sialolithiasis and saliva stasis resulting from decreased spontaneous secretion remains largely unexplored. The current study investigated the potential role of impaired spontaneous secretion in association with the formation of submandibular gland calculi. Study Design A retrospective cohort study. Methods Between September 2016 and December 2017, 11 patients with unilateral submandibular gland sialolithiasis confirmed with sialendoscopy were assigned to the experimental group. Another 35 patients clinically diagnosed with parotid obstructive sialadenitis were assigned as the control group. The slope changes of the isotope count curve of the unaffected submandibular gland in the experimental group and the bilateral submandibular glands in the control group were calculated and compared to estimate the spontaneous secretion differences. The degree of spontaneous secretion was defined as the slope changes in the steady ascending stage of the scintigraphic exam. Results The slope decline (degree of spontaneous secretion) on the unaffected side in patients with single‐gland submandibular obstructive sialadenitis was significantly lower than that in the control individuals (p = .002). In contrast, the between‐group comparison in the unaffected parotid glands revealed no difference in the slope decline. Conclusion The spontaneous secretion of the submandibular gland in patients with submandibular sialolithiasis was decreased compared to that in patients without submandibular sialolithiasis. This phenomenon might be associated with the development of sialolithiasis. Level of Evidence 3.

The role of the IFI6 gene has been described in several cancers, but its involvement in esophageal cancer (ESCA) remains unclear. This study aimed to identify novel prognostic indicators for ESCA-targeted therapy by investigating IFI6’s expression, epigenetic mechanisms, and signaling activities. We utilized public data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to analyze IFI6’s expression, clinical characteristics, gene function, pathways, and correlation with different immune cells in ESCA. The TIMER2.0 database was employed to assess the pan-cancer expression of IFI6, while UALCAN was used to examine its expression across tumor stages and histology subtypes. Additionally, the KEGG database helped identify related pathways. Our findings revealed 95 genes positively correlated and 15 genes negatively correlated with IFI6 in ESCA. IFI6 was over-expressed in ESCA and other cancers, impacting patient survival and showing higher expression in tumor tissues than normal tissues. IFI6 was also correlated with CD4+ T cells and B cell receptors (BCRs), both essential in immune response. GO Biological Process (GO BP) enrichment analysis indicated that IFI6 was primarily associated with the Type I interferon signaling pathway and the defense response to viruses. Intriguingly, KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated that IFI6 and its positively correlated genes in ESCA were mostly linked to the Cytosolic DNA-sensing pathway, which plays a crucial role in innate immunity and viral defense, and the RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) signaling pathway, which detects viral infections and activates immune responses. Pathways related to various viral infections were also identified. It is important to note that our study relied on online databases. Given that ESCA consists of two distinct subgroups (ESCC and EAC), most databases combine them into a single category. Future research should focus on evaluating IFI6 expression and its impact on each subgroup to gain more specific insights. In conclusion, inhibiting IFI6 using targeted therapy could be an effective strategy for treating ESCA considering its potential as a biomarker and correlation with immune cell factors.

Objectives To provide a concept of measuring pressure changes under constant fluid infusion for the diagnosis of sialolithiasis, termed the sialodynamic test, in a porcine head model. Methods Using a porcine head model, a constant infusion of water into the submandibular gland of the two groups over 30 s was performed and the outlet pressure was measured. Metal beads were inserted into the salivary duct for obstruction simulation after the normal submandibular gland sialodynamic measurements were completed. Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the differences between the measured individuals and the experimental group ( n = 3). Results The results showed no significant difference between individuals in the control group, but intergroup variation was noted in the simulated sialolithiasis group. The volume-dependent linear increase in pressure was exacerbated in the simulated sialolithiasis group compared with the control. Conclusion This study indicated that evaluating the relationship between pressure and volume changes can help to determine whether stones are present in the submandibular gland. The sialodynamic test might serve as a potential diagnostic method for salivary diseases.

This study investigated the effects of different natural environments on attention restoration and creativity. To compare the restorative benefits based on the degrees of perceived naturalness in urban areas, this study categorized environments into three types of perceived naturalness and tested the effect on one's creativity. The urban campus was selected as the study site, representing high-, medium-, and low-perceived naturalness photosets downloaded from Google Street Map images as experimental stimuli. The study invited 100 subjects to take the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA), which measures creative thinking by viewing the onscreen photosets of the experimental stimuli. In addition, this study asked participants to complete the Perceived Restoration Scale (PRS) questionnaires. The results showed that high- and medium-perceived naturalness in the urban-campus site was superior to low-perceived naturalness in creative performance. In addition, there were significant differences in elaboration and flexibility for different degrees of perceived naturalness. Various degrees of perceived naturalness showed a substantial correlation between PRS scores and ATTA scores. The attention restoration benefits of high- and medium-naturalness environments improve creativity. Our study indicates that viewing natural environments stimulates curiosity and fosters flexibility and imagination, highly natural environments distract our minds from work, and the benefits of attention restoration can improve the uniqueness and diversity of creative ideas. This study provides a reference for creative environmental design and supports further understanding of nature's health and creativity benefits in urban areas.

Introduction Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most prevalent causes of hearing impairment and occupational diseases. Although multiple factors lead to noise-induced hearing loss, prevention and protection strategies remain limited. Studies in the past decade have employed antioxidants, especially N-acetyl-cysteine, to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluated the effect of N-acetyl-cysteine on the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. Material and methods This systematic review and meta-analysis included relevant studies from the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science by using related terms. The study only included randomized controlled trials in meta-analyses and assessed the quality of the identified randomized controlled trials by using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Two authors extracted and calculated data on characteristics and hearing threshold. The results are presented as weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results This study identified five randomized controlled trials that randomized 1,115 patients into N-acetyl-cysteine and control groups. The meta-analysis evidenced that N-acetyl-cysteine has greater protective effects against hearing threshold shifts than the control in the 0 to 4 kHz (WMD = –3.39, 95% CI: –6.56 to –0.22) and 0 to 6 kHz (MD = –3.49, 95% CI: –6.57 to –0.41) subgroups. Conclusions The present review and meta-analysis recommends that N-acetyl-cysteine may be considered as an option for protective therapy for noise-induced hearing loss. Nonetheless, larger randomized controlled trials are requisite for further investigation and verification.

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the use of in-laboratory positive airway pressure (PAP) titration studies was not routinely suggested. PAP pressure prediction calculations are emerging as alternative methods for the treatment of these patients. The underestimation of PAP titration pressure usually leads to unsatisfactory results for PAP therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the factors associated with the underestimation of PAP titration pressure when using PAP pressure prediction equations. Estimated PAP pressure formulas based on body mass index (BMI) and apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) were chosen to validate the accuracy of equations in the successful prediction of titration pressure. Among 341 adult patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by overnight polysomnography (PSG) and who received overnight PAP titration in order to select a successful pressure, the mean age of the total subjects was 55.4 years old and 78.9% of patients were male. The average BMI and AHI scores were 27.1 ± 4.8 and 37 ± 21.7, respectively. After multivariate stepwise regression analysis, the odds ratio of participants with a pretitration AHI was 1.017 (95% CI: 1.005–1.030). Only the severity of OSA was significantly different between the underestimated group and the adequately assessed group. In conclusion, a high AHI, but not BMI, is associated with an underestimated CPAP titration pressure in adult patients with OSA.

Few efforts have been made regarding the optimization of porcine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) to improve its biocompatibility. This study aims to evaluate the effect of SIS degassing on the promotion of cell attachment and wound healing. The degassed SIS was evaluated in vitro and in vivo, compared with the nondegassed SIS control. In the cell sheet reattachment model, the reattached cell sheet coverage was significantly higher in the degassed SIS group than in the nondegassed group. Cell sheet viability was also significantly higher in the SIS group than in the control group. In vivo studies showed that the tracheal defect repaired by the degassed SIS patch showed enhanced healing and reductions in fibrosis and luminal stenosis compared to the nondegassed SIS control group, with the thickness of the transplanted grafts in the degassed SIS group significantly lower than those in the control group (346.82 ± 28.02 µm vs. 771.29 ± 20.41 µm, p < 0.05). Degassing the SIS mesh significantly promoted cell sheet attachment and wound healing by reducing luminal fibrosis and stenosis compared to the nondegassed control SIS. The results suggest that the degassing processing might be a simple and effective way to improve the biocompatibility of SIS.

Background/Purpose: To evaluate the therapeutic responsiveness of office-based salivary gland ductal irrigation in patients with chronic sialoadenitis. Methods: Between August 2017 and April 2019, 55 patients comprising the following three disease groups were enrolled: Sjogren’s syndrome: 39 patients; postradiotherapy sialoadenitis: ten patients; and post-RAI sialoadenitis: six patients. Quantitative salivary scintigraphy was recorded, and a formulated questionnaire including the Summated Xerostomia Inventory was utilized to assess acute/chronic symptoms. All patients received at least three serial salivary gland ductal irrigations with a one-month interval in our outpatient department. Results: The general response rates for each disease groups are as follows: Sjogren’s syndrome: 61.5% (24/39); postradiotherapy: 60% (6/10); and post-RAI: 83.3% (5/6). Among the patients with Sjogren’s syndrome, the parotid scintigraphic Tmin showed a significant positive correlation with the responsiveness of salivary irrigation (P = 0.046), whereas the treatment tended to be irresponsive in patients who previously took medicine for their related discomfort (P = 0.009). In the postradiotherapy and post-RAI groups, no significant factors were found to be associated with the responsiveness of irrigation. Conclusion: Simple salivary ductal irrigation without complex equipment can be performed as an outpatient procedure to alleviate glandular swelling or xerostomia in patients with Sjogren's syndrome, postradiotherapy sialoadenitis or post-RAI sialoadenitis, and it can be considered an alternative management approach for patients refractory to conventional strategies.

Nature and health researchers have often suggested that nature induces better psychological and physical health responses than urban environments, especially with healthy ecosystems in nature. However, research that has empirically documented the daily benefits of physical and psychological health in rural landscapes is scarce. This study explores how rural landscapes could provide better health benefits than the built environment in daily life. The research involved on-site data collection with a set of psychological indicators (e.g., restorativeness, preference, emotion) and physical indicators (e.g., brain waves, heart rate) to compare the rural and the built environments. A total of 169 subjects took part in the study. We analyzed health indicators through analysis of variance to show the difference in water landscapes in rural areas relative to the built environment after the participants experienced the environments. The results showed that subjects could release stress and felt a greater sense of restorativeness, pleasure, and arousal in rural areas than in the built environment. Subjects preferred the rural landscape more than the built environment. To conclude, this study explains the rural landscape and its health-related benefits in Taiwan.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199135.].

People experience a healthy energy gained from the environment and an inner feeling, called the Qi experience. The flow experience has been a popular topic in Western studies, especially within the fields of psychology and health, and in all kinds of activities. Our current study used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the relationship between the Qi experience and the flow experience. After collecting data using open-ended questions, we integrated and connected the Qi experience into five orientations: (1) the feeling of Qi; (2) the mind; (3) Qi and consciousness; (4) physical, mental, and spiritual benefits; and (5) the feeling of Tao. The results revealed a high level of consistency between the flow experience and the Qi experience (r = 0.90, p

Graphic design thinking is a key skill for landscape architects, but little is known about the links between the design process and brain activity. Based on Goel's frontal lobe lateralization hypothesis (FLLH), we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brain activity of 24 designers engaging in four design processes-viewing, copy drawing, preliminary ideas, and refinement-during graphic design thinking. The captured scans produced evidence of dramatic differences between brain activity when copying an existing graphic and when engaging in graphic design thinking. The results confirm that designs involving more graphic design thinking exhibit significantly more activity in the left prefrontal cortex. These findings illuminate the design process and suggest the possibility of developing specific activities or exercises to promote graphic design thinking in landscape architecture.

Spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (sCSF) leak from the skull base has been previously reported, but there are few reports of sCSF leak from the foramen rotundum due to its rare occurrence. This case report describes a 15-year-old male patient that presented with left side watery rhinorrhoea that had been present since he was 4 years of age and a history of repeated bouts of meningitis of unknown cause. A discharge sample from the nose tested positive for beta-2 transferrin. Preoperative computed tomography (CT) revealed a fistula between the cerebellopontine angle and the left sphenoid sinus. There was also a pseudo-Chiari malformation type I with ectopia of the cerebellar tonsil. Endoscopic transnasal surgery identified a leak from the foramen rotundum that was repaired using autologous material and a contralateral pedicle nasoseptal flap. At 6 months after surgery, the patient reported no recurrence of the CSF leakage. Postoperative CT imaging revealed that the cerebellar tonsil was back in the normal position, indicating that the preoperative Chiari malformation was possibly due to decreased CSF volume. This current case shows that a rare case of sCSF leak from the foramen rotundum can be effectively repaired using the endoscopic transnasal approach.

Fungal or bacterial co-infections in patients with H1N1 influenza have already been reported in many studies. However, information on the risk factors, complications, and prognosis of mortality cases with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited. We aimed to assess 36 mortality cases of 178 hospitalized patients among 339 patients confirmed to have had SARS-CoV-2 infections in a medical center in the Wenshan District of Taipei, Taiwan, between January 2020 and September 2021. Of these 36 mortality cases, 20 (60%) were men, 28 (77.7%) were aged >65 years, and the median age was 76 (54–99) years. Comorbidities such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and chronic kidney disease were more likely to be found in the group with length of stay (LOS) > 7 d. In addition, the laboratory data indicating elevated creatinine-phosphate-kinase (CPK) (p < 0.001) and lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) (p = 0.05), and low albumin (p < 0.01) levels were significantly related to poor prognosis and mortality. The respiratory pathogens of early co-infections (LOS < 7 d) in the rapid progression to death group (n = 7 patients) were two bacteria (22.2%) and seven Candida species (77.8.7%). In contrast, pathogens of late co-infections (LOS > 7 d) (n = 27 patients) were 20 bacterial (54.1%), 16 Candida (43.2%), and only 1 Aspergillus (2.7%) species. In conclusion, the risk factors related to COVID-19 mortality in the Wenshan District of Taipei, Taiwan, were old age, comorbidities, and abnormal biomarkers such as low albumin level and elevated CPK and LDH levels. Bacterial co-infections are more common with Gram-negative pathogens. However, fungal co-infections are relatively more common with Candida spp. than Aspergillus in mortality cases of COVID-19.

The requesting of detailed information on new drugs including drug-drug interactions or targets is often unavailable and resource-intensive in assessing adverse drug events. To shorten the common evaluation process of drug-drug interactions, we present a machine learning framework-HAINI to predict DDI types for histamine antagonist drugs using simplified molecular-input line-entry systems (SMILES) combined with interaction features based on CYP450 group as inputs. The data used in our research consisted of approved drugs of histamine antagonists that are connected to 26,344 DDI pairs from the DrugBank database. Various classification algorithms such as Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and XGBoost were used with 5-fold cross-validation to approach a large-scale DDIs prediction among histamine antagonist drugs. The prediction performance shows that our model outperformed previously published works on DDI prediction with the best precision of 0.788, a recall of 0.921, and an F1-score of 0.838 among 19 given DDIs types. An important finding of the study is that our prediction is based solely on the SMILES and CYP450 and thus can be applied at the early stage of drug development.

Decellularization has emerged as a potential solution for tracheal replacement. As a fully decellularized graft failed to achieve its purposes, the de-epithelialization partial decellularization protocol appeared to be a promising approach for fabricating scaffolds with preserved mechanical properties and few immune rejection responses after transplantation. Nevertheless, a lack of appropriate concurrent epithelialization treatment can lead to luminal stenosis of the transplant and impede its eventual success. To improve re-epithelialization, autologous nasal epithelial cell sheets generated by our cell sheet engineering platform were utilized in this study under an in vivo rabbit model. The newly created cell sheets have an intact and transplantable appearance, with their specific characteristics of airway epithelial origin being highly expressed upon histological and immunohistochemical analysis. Subsequently, those cell sheets were incorporated with a partially decellularized tracheal graft for autograft transplantation under tracheal partial resection models. The preliminary results two months post operation demonstrated that the transplanted patches appeared to be wholly integrated into the host trachea with adequate healing of the luminal surface, which was confirmed via endoscopic and histologic evaluations. The satisfactory result of this hybrid scaffold protocol could serve as a potential solution for tracheal reconstructions in the future.

In this study, we developed a new procedure for the rapid partial decellularization of the harvested trachea. Partial decellularization was performed using a combination of detergent and sonication to completely remove the epithelial layers outside of the cartilage ring. The post-decellularized tracheal segments were assessed with vital staining, which showed that the core cartilage cells remarkably remained intact while the cells outside of the cartilage were no longer viable. The ability of the decellularized tracheal segments to evade immune rejection was evaluated through heterotopic implantation of the segments into the chest muscle of rabbits without any immunosuppressive therapy, which demonstrated no evidence of severe rejection or tissue necrosis under H&E staining, as well as the mechanical stability under stress-pressure testing. Finally, orthotopic transplantation of partially decellularized trachea with no immunosuppression treatment resulted in 2 months of survival in two rabbits and one long-term survival (2 years) in one rabbit. Through evaluations of posttransplantation histology and endoscopy, we confirmed that our partial decellularization method could be a potential method of producing low-immunogenic cartilage scaffolds with viable, functional core cartilage cells that can achieve long-term survival after in vivo transplantation.

We present voqc, the first verified optimizer for quantum circuits, written using the Coq proof assistant. Quantum circuits are expressed as programs in a simple, low-level language called sqir, a small quantum intermediate representation, which is deeply embedded in Coq. Optimizations and other transformations are expressed as Coq functions, which are proved correct with respect to a semantics of sqir programs. sqir programs denote complex-valued matrices, as is standard in quantum computation, but we treat matrices symbolically to reason about programs that use an arbitrary number of quantum bits. sqir's careful design and our provided automation make it possible to write and verify a broad range of optimizations in voqc, including full-circuit transformations from cutting-edge optimizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known regarding the long-term adverse effects of a sialoadenectomy. The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) among patients receiving a sialoadenectomy procedure by utilizing a cohort study based on a population-based database in Taiwan. This study retrieved data of the study sample from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005. This retrospective cohort study included 608 patients who underwent a sialoadenectomy and 1824 propensity score-matched comparison patients. We individually tracked each sampled patient for a 3-year period from their index date to discriminate those who subsequently received a diagnosis of CHD during the follow-up period. We found that respective incidence rates of CHD during the 3-year follow-up period were 3.87 (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.01-4.91) and 1.79 (95% CI: 1.45-2.18) per 100 person-years for patients who did and those who did not undergo a sialoadenectomy. The stratified Cox proportional analysis revealed that the hazard ratio of CHD during the 3-year follow-up period was 2.43 (95% CI: 1.77-3.33) than comparison patients. This study demonstrates an association between sialoadenectomy and CHD.

Acoustic analysis is often used in speech evaluation but seldom for the evaluation of oral prostheses designed for reconstruction of surgical defect. This study aimed to introduce the application of acoustic analysis for patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) due to oral surgery and rehabilitated with oral speech-aid prostheses. Methods: The pre- and postprosthetic rehabilitation acoustic features of sustained vowel sounds from two patients with VPI were analyzed and compared with the acoustic analysis software Praat. Results: There were significant differences in the octave spectrum of sustained vowel speech sound between the pre- and postprosthetic rehabilitation. Acoustic measurements of sustained vowels for patients before and after prosthetic treatment showed no significant differences for all parameters of fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonics ratio, formant frequency, F1 bandwidth, and band energy difference. The decrease in objective nasality perceptions correlated very well with the decrease in dips of the spectra for the male patient with a higher speech bulb height. Conclusion: Acoustic analysis may be a potential technique for evaluating the functions of oral speech-aid prostheses, which eliminates dysfunctions due to the surgical defect and contributes to a high percentage of intelligible speech. Octave spectrum analysis may also be a valuable tool for detecting changes in nasality characteristics of the voice during prosthetic treatment of VPI.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082952.].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072097.].

Background and Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting extrusion time in both children and adults with ventilation tube (VT) insertion, providing useful information for clinicians for better decision-making, follow strategy, and potentially improve clinical outcomes for these patients. Methods: Data from patients receiving myringotomy with VT insertion from January 1, 2007, to June 30, 2012, were retrospectively collected and analyzed by the end of 2018. Various factors, including age, gender, history of VT insertion, tympanogram, size of VT used, local finding of tympanic membrane, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and postoperative ear infection, were included and analyzed to examine the effects of these factors on extrusion time. Results: A total of 447 patients were included in this study (Child group--Adult group ¼ 237:210). The overall average extrusion time was 225.85 days. In the subgroup analysis, the average time was 221.3 days and 231.0 days for children and adults, respectively. The results showed that the VT extrusion time was significantly longer in participants without a history of VT insertion and in those where larger sized VTs were inserted in both age-groups. Male gender had an influence on extrusion time in children. In addition, a history of VT insertion and VT size were determined to be factors related to extrusion before 12 months in children. Conclusion: History of VT insertion and VT size were significantly related to VT extrusion time in both children and adults and defined as factors associated with extrusion before 12 months in children. The findings suggest avoiding VT with a diameter < 1 mm and considering an appropriately larger size in patients with a history of VT insertion to optimize VT retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]