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.
Indoxyl sulfate (IS) is an anionic uremic toxin that is accumulated in the serum of patients with uremia. In previous study, the investigators successfully induced AKI animal model. IS enhanced intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in IL-1β-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) that this may play a critical role in the progression of AKI. However, the molecular mechanisms of ICAM-1 expression in IS-treated IL-1β-treated HUVECs need to be elucidated. HUVECs incubated with 0.2 or 1 mM IS for 24 h did not cause cytotoxicity. The IL-1β-induced ICAM-1 expression in HUVECs was significantly enhanced by IS pretreatment. Furthermore, the regulation of adhesion molecule expression involves a complex array of intracellular signaling pathways including mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and transcriptional factors. A better understanding of this might provide important insights into the prevention of AKI.
Purpose: To investigate the different sound spectrum of carotid arteries and to analyze its relationship to the vessel disease, and to build a new biomarker about vascular disorder. Methods: To record the carotid phonoangiography with digital stereoscopy and analysis the spectrum with different algorithm such as FFT, wavelet, entropy, complexity, and HHT. The results will be correlated and comparison to the finding in clinical, carotid Doppler and duplex, CTA, MR, and catheter angiography. Statistics: The significance of difference between parameters was computed using t-tests or paired t-test etc. A p value <0.05 is defined as significant.
The Role of microRNA-29b in the Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
The best strategy to prevent colorectal cancer (CRC) death lies in early detection and early treatment at the local disease status of tumor. After curative resection of tumor, there are about 5~10% of stage I, 20~30% of stage II and 40~50% of stage III patients suffering metastasis during subsequent follow-up periods. Although carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is the most widely used biomarker for postoperative monitoring of recurrence on asymptomatic patients, it is difficult to use CEA as biological marker to identify the population with high recurrent risk in patients with early-stage cancer because lower than half of patients with early-stage cancer do not have CEA elevation. For improving the survival of patients with early-stage CRC, we need effort to search more useful biological markers to predict the risk of tumor recurrence and to select out patients with high recurrent risk to receive preventive adjuvant therapy. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood play an essential role in cancer metastasis. Hence, the detection of CTCs and subsequent analysis can potentially revolutionize the cancer care ranging from screening, diagnosis, monitoring, to drug selection and so on. In the past decade, many methods using magnetic beads (CellSearch), filtration (RareCelletc), or flow cytometry have been developed but all of them have the shortcomings from low sensitivity, low purity, to unable to retrieve cells for downstream molecular analysis and cell culture. Recently, a biomimetic affinity based microfluidic platform has overcome abovementioned technical challenges. Importantly, by using only 2 ml of peripheral blood, Sinica's team has shown that the enumeration of CTCs increases with the CRC disease progression, where the mean CTC counts are 3, 15, 29 and 60 per ml for the stages I, II, III and IV, respectively. The results imply that monitoring CTC enumeration serially may serve as a prediction marker to identify the CRC patients with high probability of recurrence. The aims of this study are toestablishing CTC platform standard operation protocol (SOP) that leads to certification of ISO 13485 and to establish CTC criteria and evaluate its prediction power of early detection of colorectal cancer recurrence.
Chronic renal disease is now the tenth leading cause of mortality Taiwan. It is worth to study the effect of low protein formula on the retardation of failing renal function, decrease plasma homocysteine and oxidative stress and further increase antioxidant capacities in patients with chronic kidney disease. The purpose of this study is going to investigate the effects of protein formula on renal function, homocysteine , oxidative stress and antioxidant capacities in patients with chronic kidney disease. One hundred and twenty patients with end stage renal disease (stage 2~4) who meet the inclusion criteria will be recruited from Taichung General Veterans Hospital, Taichung. Participant patients will be blinded and randomly assigned to either the placebo (n = 60) or low protein formula (n = 60) for 12 weeks. Data on demography, anthropometry and medical history will be collected, and fasting blood samples and 24 h urine samples will be obtained at week 0, 12 and 24 during intervention period. The levels of hematological, plasma and erythrocyte PLP, plasma pyridoxal and 4-pyridoxic acid, serum and erythrocyte folate, serum vitamin B-12, homocysteine, lipid peroxidation indicators, glutathione, total antioxidant capacity and antioxidant enzymatic will be measured. Twenty-four hour urine volume will be recorded and urine creatinine and urea nitrogen will be analyzed. Creatinine clearance rate will be measured. Hopefully, the results of this study could provide more pictures on beneficial effects of low protein formula on renal function, plasma homocysteine, oxidative stress and antioxidant capacities in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the most common cancer of urinary tract. Patients with metastatic UC are usually treated with systemic chemotherapy. There still existed 30% to 50% of advanced UC not responsive to cisplatin-based chemotherapy; the prognosis for patients with metastatic UC remains poor.
Shoulder anterior dislocation is a major disease entity in emergency department. There are more than 10 reduction methods that have been reported. Traditional reduction methods require sedatives, which could cause adverse effects on the patients such as respiratory suppression and allergy. There are some reduction maneuvers reported recently which do not need sedatives prior to performing reduction, including FARES method and SPASO method. So far, there are no well-designed study to compare these two methods. Besides, in clinical experience, we found that combining these two methods could even get higher successful reduction rate. This study is aimed to compare these two methods as a prospective randomized design, and furthermore, to show that combining these two methods could get higher successful reduction rate.
Bladder urothelial carcinoma (UC) is a common malignancy and the incidence is increasing by years in Taiwan. Chemoresistance was inevitable in treatment of metastatic disease and lead to the ominous outcomes. To develop novel therapeutic strategies to overcome chemoresistance is imperative. Cancer cells uptake glucose at higher rates than normal tissue but use most of glucose for glycolysis even under normoxia condition, which is known as the Warburg effect. Pyruvate kinase (PK) catalyzes the last step in the process of glycolysis, and one of it isoform--PKM2 has been reported to be associated with tumor progression and some specific tissues and promotes the Warburg effect in cancer cells.
Objectives: The aims of this study are (1) to define the effectiveness of functional nasal surgery during Le Fort I osteotomy on nasal obstruction through objective as well as subjective evaluations, (2) to determine guideline for concomitant functional nasal surgery with Le Fort I osteotomy, and (3) to explore possible mechanisms by which functional nasal surgery may reduce nasal obstruction severity. Design: A prospective, single-blnd, randomized trial. Setting: Chang Gung Craniofacial Center and Department of Otolaryngology (ENT). Patients: A total of 80 Taiwanese patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate and dentofacial deformity (age >16 for females, >18 for males; 40 in experimental and 40 in control groups) Interventions: In the experimental group, all patients will receive Le Fort I osteotomy and septoplasty. In the control group, all patients will receive Le Fort I osteotomy only. Measurements: All patients will undergo history taking, clinical examination, radioallergosorbent (RAST) examination (before surgery), standard questionnaire and image examination before surgery, one week, 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after surgery. To reduce radiation exposure, cone-beam CT will only be performed before surgery and one week, 12 and 24 months after surgery. Data Analysis: Independent t and chi-squared tests, correlation coefficients and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used. Statistical significance is assumed for a p value of less than 0.05. Key Words: cleft lip palate, nasal septum deviation, Le Fort I osteotomy, septoplasty, effectiveness
Background and Purposes: Orthognathic surgery is necessary in more than 25% of patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) to correct skeletal discrepancy and to obtain harmonious facial esthetics in the final phase treatment. A setback of mandible by bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO) along with maxillary osteotomy is usually performed when large skeletal discrepancies or associated mandibular deformities (e.g., asymmetries, canting of the mandibular occlusal plane) are present. Although the surgical technique of BSSO is well-developed, the neurosensory disturbances of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) remain one of the major postoperative complications. The purpose of this study is to identify the risk factors of IAN disturbances after BSSO and in turn to help clinicians to avoid such complication and to raise the satisfaction level of patients. Design: Prospective prognosis study. Setting: Chang Gung Craniofacial Center, Taoyuan. Patients: Two hundred Taiwanese patients with nonsyndromic CLP (age, >16 for females, >18 for males), who will undergo a BSSO as a part of the correction of their dentofacial deformities Measurements: All patients will undergo subjective (e.g., questionnaire) and objective (e.g., 2-point discrimination, light touch detection, and sharp/blunt detection) neurosensory assessments before surgery, and 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after surgery. Cone beam computed tomography is performed before surgery and 1 week after surgery. Peri-operative factors including type of BSSO, extent of surgical correction, extent of split and fixation screws, concomitant genioplasty or third molar extraction are assessed. Patient-related factors including age, gender, bone quality of inferior alveolar canal are recorded as well. Data Analysis: Univariate and multivariate analyses will be performed. Statistical significance is assumed for a p value of less than 0.05.