There are about 10560 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Taiwan. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
From literature review, circulating tumor cell was demonstrated its possible role in disease relapse. It was rare nit could be identified in all lung cancer patients. In addition, circulating tumor cell usual aggregate to form circulating tumor micro-emboli and caused distant metastases. Therefore, circulating tumor cell could play a role in detect disease relapse and appropriate treatment could be given more earlier and further prolong patients' survival. However, the detail clinical significance of circulating tumor still remains unknown. The aim of this study was evaluate the clinical significance, including present timing, numbers, and correlation to disease relapse, of circulating tumor cell in lung cancer patients. The investigators want to clarify the clinical significance between circulating tumor cell and clinical presentation of lung cancer in order to establish new prediction model and improve lung cancer patients' survival.
Study ROR-PH-303, ADVANCE EXTENSION, is an open-label extension (OLE) study for participants with WHO Group 1 PAH who have participated in another Phase 2 or Phase 3 study of ralinepag.
Cholestatic jaundice with multitude of causes affects approximately 1 in every 2,500 infants. Of the many conditions that cause neonatal cholestasis, the most commonly identifiable are biliary atresia (BA) (25%-35%). The incidence in Taiwan was 1.2 to 2.0 per 10,000 live birth. Prognosis and survival are improved if bile drainage is restored by a Kasai portoenterostomy. Stool color card was introduced to Taiwan in 2002 and national screening program was started in 2004. The rate of age at Kasai operation <60 days improved from 49.4% before year 2002 to 65.7% after introducing nationwide stool color card screening in Taiwan. There was a great improvement in early diagnosis for biliary atresia after stool color card screening and there were still many researches tried to improve the timing of diagnosis. A prospective cohort observational study on neonates under 27 days old at London showed that serum conjugated bilirubin > 18 micromol/l in plasma measured at 6-10 days is a reliable marker for neonatal cholestasis liver disease with sensitivity 100%, specificity 99.59% (95% CI 99.5-99.67), PPV 10.3% (95% CI 4.50-16.0). Our study aims to developed a screening test for neonatal cholestasis using dry blood spot to improve patient survival by early diagnosis of treatable neonatal cholestasis disease, such as biliary atresia and inborn error of bile acid metabolism. The diseases markers for neonatal cholestasis we aims including basic clinical blood test examination profiles, inflammatory markers, fibrosis markers, immune profiles. In phase I study we will enroll cholestasis patients at National Taiwan University Children Hospital. We will collect patients' blood on dry blood spot and measure the disease markers for cholestasis disease. In phase II study, we will enroll the cholestasis patients and healthy newborn without cholestasis. We will review their newborn screening at 3 days old. Newborn screening dry blood spot will be examined for the disease markers and compared with healthy control without cholestasis. ROC curve analysis will be performed to find the best cut-off to screen for neonatal cholestasis patients. The findings will aid early diagnosis in the patients and hence improve the survival.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a syndrome defined as an intermediate stage between cognitively intact and clinically diagnosed dementia. The progression rate from MCI to dementia ranges from 10 to 15% each year, resulting in increased family care and medical expenses. Therefore, providing effective interventions are necessary. Combining cognitive training and physical exercise training appears to have effects to prevent the progression of MCI to Alzheimer's disease or other severe cognitive impairment. It was proposed that cognitively challenging stimulations can increase the neural network and promote neural plasticity, which are essential for preventing cognitive decline in patients with MCI. The studies also showed that physical exercise induces positive effects on cerebral blood flow and induces brain activation changes of the frontal, parietal, and temporal areas; these cortical areas are especially important for memory and other cognitive functions. However, it is yet not clear the appropriate frequency of the effective intervention for patients with MCI. Thus, this study aims to compare the intervention effects of high frequency sequential and low frequency sequential training for patients with MCI.
The specific aims of the project are performing a pre-clinical study on a human model and evaluating the oxygenation and other status of human erythrocytes by spectrally-resolved third harmonic generation (srTHG) microscopy . By analyzing the partitioned third harmonic generation (THG) spectra of oxygenated and deoxygenated erythrocytes ex vivo, the investigators aim to provide a reference standard for quantifying oxygenation and molecular status in this project.
combine antihypertensive drugs and acupuncture to isolated systolic hypertension elderly patients at home
The supraclavicular brachial plexus block is widely used in upper limb surgery below the shoulder. However, this can easily lead to long-term motor nerve blockage, Horner's syndrome, phrenic nerve paralysis or systemic poisoning, and even serious side effects such as cardiac arrest. Dexamethasone is a synthetic corticosteroid and becoming more common to use steroids as an adjunct to local anesthetics in brachial plexus block. In order to reduce the incidence of long-acting topical anesthetics from the nerve block in the supraclavicular arm, reducing the local anesthetic concentration is a feasible method, but this will also result in a shorter time to neurological block. The investigators hypothesized that the addition of Dexamethasone 5 mg to low concentrations (0.25%) of Ropivacaine would prolong postoperative analgesia.Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the postoperative analgesia and the side effects of postoperative supraclavicular brachial plexus blockade with the addition of Dexamethasone 5mg to Ropivacaine (0.5%) alone and Ropivacaine (0.25%) in low concentrations.
In Taiwan, there are more than 23,000 individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI, mean age: 27 years), with an increment of new 1,200 SCI individuals each year. Recovery of ambulatory function is among the most important therapeutic goals because 92% of the individuals with SCI have to use the wheelchair for the rest of their lives. The lower limb powered exoskeleton robot, FREE Walk, used for training in this research was developed by FREE Bionics Inc. The main purpose of this research is to test the safety and feasibility of FREE Walk exoskeleton robot. In addition, the research will further investigate the range of injury levels for the intended SCI users and the learning time needed for the users to independently operate the exoskeleton robot.
Agitation, paranoia, and suicide risk of the psychiatric patients made them difficult to be managed when they visited medical emergency services. The prolonged waiting time at medical emergency services and the stigmatization of psychiatric medicine also made the psychiatric emergency services full of challenges. However, in recent years, the random killings, celebrity suicide and other major social events attracted much attention to the emergency psychiatry. Following the establishment of the National Health Insurance, the law of mandatory admission, and the prevalence change of all psychiatric diseases, we are now dealing with totally different types of emergent psychiatric conditions, i.e., depression and suicide. However, the real epidemiological data need to be updated. Psychiatric emergency is one of the entrances of the psychiatric network. A comprehensive review of the psychiatric emergency would be needed for the base of further research. This study is aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric diagnosis of patients who came to Emergency Department of National Taiwan University Hospital and needed a psychiatric consultation. The epidemiological data will be compared to those collected 30 years ago in the same hospital to examine the 30-year trend. On the other hand, the visiting time and the staying time will be analyzed. The stress of on-duty and the contributing factors will be assessed by a 2-hour in-depth interview with psychiatric residents.
This study aims to investigate the relationship among self-efficacy, anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life, lifestyle, heart rate variability and blood pressure control; and to examine the effects of self-titration strategy on self-efficacy, anxiety, depressive symptoms,heart rate variability, sodium excretion, lifestyle modification,quality of life, and blood pressure control in patients with hypertension.