Browsing by Author "Kuo H.-C."

A new system for measuring the errors of three-axis machines is presented in this paper. It is composed of a planar encoder system and a magnetic telescoping ball bar. The individual signals of three-axis displacement can be simultaneous obtained. The errors of the three-axis machines, geometric error, kinematic error, wobble error and volumetric error, can be effectively measured. The system is characterized by short set up time, low capital requirement, high measuring speed and high accuracy. ? 2009 SPIE.

We report a patient with acute intermittent porphyria who presented with progressive motor neuropathy, particularly in the upper limbs. The electrophysiological studies showed an asymmetric motor neuropathy with a prominent involvement of both the radial and left peroneal nerves. During the 1-year follow-up period, 6 courses of hematin infusion, with 150?mg daily for 4 consecutive days every month, were administrated. The motor neuropathy showed a steady and gradual improvement following the hematin treatment. Molecular analysis of the porphobilinogen deaminase gene revealed a short segment deletion (1008-1019delCAGCCTGGCCAA) resulting in a truncated protein. The findings suggest that early hematin treatment is temporally associated with interval improvement of the patient's porphyric motor neuropathy. ? 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Some members of the Brachyspira genus cause diseases such as swine dysentery (SD) and porcine intestinal (or colonic) spirochetosis. Severe economic losses are caused by decreased feed intake and increased feed conversion ratio, as well as costs associated with treatment and death. A loss of clinical efficacy of some antimicrobial agents authorized for treating SD has been observed in many countries. The aim of this study was to analyze the antimicrobial susceptibility of Brachyspira isolated from Taiwan and to investigate the mechanism of decreased susceptibility to macrolides. A total of 55 Brachyspira isolates obtained from the grower-finisher period were evaluated in this study. These isolates included B. hyodysenteriae (n = 37), B. murdochii (n = 11), B. pilosicoli (n = 5), B. intermedia (n = 1), and B. innocens (n = 1). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed to examine 12 selected antimicrobial agents. The results showed that the 50% and 90% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the tested macrolides were all >256 μg/ml. The MIC50 of lincomycin, tiamulin, carbadox, olaquindox, ampicillin, amoxicillin, doxycycline, oxytetracycline, and gentamicin were 32, 1, ?0.125, ?0.125, 0.5, 0.25, 2, 2, and 2 μg/ml. The genetic basis of the decreased susceptibility to tylosin and lincomycin in Brachyspira spp. was investigated and the results showed a possible connection to the mutations at position A2058 and G2032 of the 23S rRNA gene. These findings demonstrated that, in Taiwan, there may be a decrease in susceptibility of Brachyspira spp. to antimicrobials commonly used for the treatment of SD. ? Copyright 2018, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Background We investigated the impact of serum cholesterol levels on 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke in dialysis patients. Methods From the Taiwan Stroke Registry data, we identified 46,770 ischemic stroke cases, including 1101 dialysis patients and 45,669 nondialysis patients from 2006 to 2013. Results Overall, the 30-day mortality was 1.46-fold greater in the dialysis group than in the nondialysis group (1.75 versus 1.20 per 1000 person-days). The mortality rates were 1.64, .62, 2.82, and 2.23 per 1000 person-days in dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of?<120?mg/dL, 120-159?mg/dL, 160-199?mg/dL, and ?200?mg/dL, respectively. Compared to dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of 120-159?mg/dL, the corresponding adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were 4.20 (95% confidence interval [CI]?=?1.01-17.4), 8.06 (95% CI?=?2.02-32.2), and 6.89 (95% CI?=?1.59-29.8) for those with cholesterol levels of?<120?mg/dL, 160-199?mg/dL, and??200?mg/dL, respectively. Conclusions Dialysis patients with serum total cholesterol levels of??160?mg/dL or?<120?mg/dL on admission are at an elevated hazard of 30-day mortality after ischemic stroke. ? 2017 National Stroke Association

Objectives: Current molecular diagnostic methods in detecting Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1A (CMT1A) and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy (HNPP) diseases are either not sensitive or time-consuming and costing. The aims of this study are improving the accuracy and speeding up the diagnosis. Patients and methods: We developed real-time quantitative PCR (QPCR) and three polymorphic short tandem repeats (STRs) methods to test 53 unrelated CMT1A patients, 12 unrelated HNPP patients and 100 normal control subjects. Results: QPCR in detection of pmp22 gene duplication (CMT1A) and deletion (HNPP) showed a sensitivity of 100.00% (53/53) and 100.00% (12/12), respectively. And this method also showed a specificity of 100% (100/100) in CMT1A and 100% (100/100) in HNPP, respectively. In contrast, using three polymorphic STRs method showed a sensitivity of 50/53 (94%) in CMT1A and 12/12 (100.00%) of HNPP patients, respectively. And this method showed a specificity of 97% (100/103) in CMT1A and 100% (100/100) in HNPP, respectively. Conclusion: QPCR and three STRs methods both demonstrate a rapid and robust diagnosis with almost complete informativeness. The high sensitivity and heterozygosity of these three polymorphic markers in detecting CMT1A/HNPP subjects of Caucasian and Chinese showed the potential to become pan-ethnic screening markers in the future. ? 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs) are a group of rare diseases with wide geographic and ethnic variations in incidence, prevalence, and distribution patterns. The aim of this study was to examine the distribution pattern and clinical spectrum of PIDs in Taiwan at a national referral institute. From 1985 to 2010, 215 patients from 183 families were diagnosed and grouped according to the updated classification of PIDs. Eighty-one (37.7%) patients had "other well-defined immunodeficiency syndromes", followed by "predominantly antibody deficiencies" (54 patients; 25.1%), "T- and B-cell immunodeficiencies" (34; 15.8%), "congenital defects of phagocytes" (25; 20.2%), "complement deficiencies" (15; 7.0%), and "disease in immune dysregulation" (5; 2.3%). The last category included two patients with Chediak-Higashi syndrome, and one each with familial hemophagocytosis, IPEX, and hypogammaglobulinemia and albinism. One female had cold-induced auto-inflammatory disease. There were no cases of "defects in innate immunity". Pseudomonas and Streptococcus pneumoniae were the two most identified microorganisms in septicemia (42.7%; 44/103 episodes). Stem cell transplantation was successful in 13 of 22 patients, while 34 patients (15.8%) died. Molecular defects were identified in 109 individuals (from 90 families). There were relatively fewer cases of "predominantly antibody deficiencies" due to there being only a few patients with adult-onset PIDs, implying certainty bias rather than ethnic variation. Awareness of under-diagnosis among physicians rather than pediatricians is vital for timely diagnosis and consequently adequate treatment. ? 2011 Elsevier GmbH.

Objective: This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of imidafenacin 0.1 mg twice daily vs placebo for Taiwanese patients with overactive bladder (OAB) after a 12-week oral administration. Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two