Taipei Veterans General Hospital

About: Taipei Veterans General Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 11878 authors who have published 16478 publications receiving 363424 citations. The organization is also known as: Táiběi Róngmín Zǒngyī Yuàn.

Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation originating from the non-pulmonary vein foci

Abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that pulmonary veins (PVs) are the major site of ectopic foci initiating atrial fibrillation (AF), and isolation of the PVs from the atrial tissue can cure 65–85% of patients with AF. Furthermore, many laboratories have demonstrated the important role of non-PV ectopic beats initiating AF. The non-PV ectopic beats may arise from the superior vena cava (SVC), left atrial posterior free wall (LPFW), crista terminalis (CT), coronary sinus ostium (CSO), ligament of Marshall (LOM), or interatrial septum (IAS), with an incidence of around 20% (may be up to 35% in chronic AF).1-4 Our concepts and techniques in ablation of non-PV ectopy-initiating AF will be presented in this review article.

Health Consequences of Nutrition in Childhood and Early Infancy

Abstract: Medical and scientific studies have proven that the body's metabolic programming can be influenced by diet and nutrition from early infancy. As a result, the incidence and outcome of several metabolic diseases such as obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular disorders have been found to be associated with birth weight, growth and feeding patterns, and the body composition in early childhood. Exclusive or partial breast feeding for at least 6 months is recommended by the World Health Organization, while the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition Committee on Nutrition recommends the introduction of complementary foods at 4–6 months of age. The fat content of the diet should not be below 25% of the energy intake in order to maintain ideal growth while dietary proteins above 15% of the energy intake is related to future obesity. Long term benefits of breast feeding include a more ideal serum lipid profile and blood pressure, improved neuro-cognitive scores, and a decreased incidence for atopic dermatitis in children who have family members with atopic diseases. Several studies have also acknowledged the long term benefits for neuro-cognitive development from certain nutrients including long-chain polyunstaturated fatty acids and docosahexaenoic acid. Meat intake has proved to be beneficial to psychomotor development. It is suggested that early introduction for complementary foods before 4 months of age is a risk factor for atopic dermatitis; while no strong evidence showed delaying weaning foods can decrease the risk for allergic diseases.

Selecting an optimal staging system for hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison of 5 currently used prognostic models.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Selecting an appropriate staging system is crucial to predict the outcome of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The optimal prognostic model for HCC is under intense debate. This study investigated the prognostic ability of the 5 currently used staging systems, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC), Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP), Japan Integrated Scoring (JIS) system, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM), and Tokyo score, for HCC. METHODS: Between 2002 and 2008, 1713 prospectively enrolled HCC patients were compared for their long-term survival by using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) according to the staging or scoring methods of these 5 models. RESULTS: The mean and median follow-up duration was 18 and 14 months, respectively. Among all patients, the CLIP staging system had the lowest AIC value in comparison with other systems in the Cox proportional hazards model, followed by the Tokyo score, JIS score, BCLC staging system, and TNM staging system. Patients undergoing curative treatment had a significantly better survival in comparison with patients undergoing noncurative treatment (P < .001). When the predictive accuracy of the staging systems was analyzed according to treatment strategy, the CLIP staging system had the lowest AIC value and remained the best prognostic model in patients undergoing curative (801 patients) and noncurative (912 patients) treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The CLIP staging system is the best long-term prognostic model for HCC in a cohort of patient with early to advanced stage of HCC. Its predictive accuracy is independent of the treatment strategy. Selecting an optimal staging system is helpful in improving the design of future clinical trials. Cancer 2010. © 2010 American Cancer Society.