Background
Most cases of chronic urticaria (CU) are idiopathic. Circumstantial evidence suggests that some CU cases have an autoimmune pathogenesis. Previous research indicates that a substantial ...percentage of patients with CU have an atopic background.
Objectives
This study aims to examine the association between CU, and atopic and autoimmune diseases.
Methods
This population‐based retrospective cohort study identified 9,332 patients with CU and 37,328 controls matched for age, sex, and number of dermatological clinic visits from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database for 2004–2009. Using multiple logistic regression, we estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations of CU with atopic and autoimmune diseases.
Results
CU was most strongly associated with Kawasaki disease (modified OR, 2.76; 95% CI 1.15–6.63), followed by Henoch–Schönlein purpura (HSP), atopic dermatitis (AD), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), allergic rhinitis (AR), autoimmune thyroid diseases, Sjögren syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and asthma, which had the lowest adjusted OR (1.11; 95% CI 1.01–1.22) among comorbidities significantly associated with CU. The associations varied in relation to age, group, and sex. Among women, CU was significantly associated with AD, AR, autoimmune thyroid diseases, SLE, vitiligo, and HSP. Among men, CU was significantly associated with AD, AR, autoimmune thyroid diseases, Kawasaki disease, and IBD.
Conclusion
CU is associated with atopic/autoimmune diseases. Increased awareness of atopic and autoimmune comorbidities may be warranted for patients with CU.
The air pollution caused by vehicular emissions is associated with cognitive decline. However, the associations between the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) exposure and ...dementia remain poorly defined and have been addressed in only a few previous studies.
In this study, we obtained data on 29547 people from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, including data on 1720 patients diagnosed with dementia between 2000 and 2010, and we evaluated the risk of dementia among four levels of air pollutant. Detailed data on daily air pollution were available from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2010. Yearly average concentrations of pollutants were calculated from the baseline to the date of dementia occurrence, withdrawal of patients, or the end of the study, and these data were categorized into quartiles, with Q1 being the lowest level and Q4 being the highest.
In the case of NO2, the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of dementia for all participants in Q2, Q3, and Q4 compared to Q1 were 1.10 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96-1.26), 1.01 (95% CI, 0.87-1.17), and 1.54 (95% CI, 1.34-1.77), and in the case of CO, the adjusted HRs were 1.07 (95% CI, 0.92-1.25), 1.37 (95% CI, 1.19-1.58), and 1.61 (95% CI, 1.39-1.85).
The results of this large retrospective, population-based study indicate that exposure to NO2 and CO is associated with an increased risk of dementia in the Taiwanese population.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Studies into the association between hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and end-stage renal disease are limited. We investigated the risk of end-stage renal disease after delivery among women ...with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.
We used insurance claims data from 1998 to 2009 to identify 26,651 women aged 19-40 years old who experienced hypertensive disorders during pregnancy; these women had no history of hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease or lupus. We also randomly selected 213,397 women without hypertensive disorders during pregnancy as a comparison cohort; the frequency was matched by age and index year of pregnancy. We compared the incidence of end-stage renal disease in the 2 cohorts. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after controlling for demographic and clinical factors.
Women with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy had a greater risk of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, with adjusted HRs of 9.38 (95% CI 7.09-12.4) and 12.4 (95% CI 8.54-18.0), respectively, after controlling for urban status, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, hyperlipidemia and abruption. The HR for end-stage renal disease was 2.72 (95% CI 1.76-4.22) after we also controlled for hypertension and diabetes. Women with preeclampsia or eclampsia had a higher risk of end-stage renal disease (adjusted HR 14.0, 95% CI 9.43-20.7) than women who had gestational hypertension only (adjusted HR 9.03, 95% CI 5.20-15.7).
Women with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy were at a high risk of end-stage renal disease. The risk was much greater for women who had preeclampsia or eclampsia than those who had gestational hypertension only.
Previous studies revealed that chronic exposure to air pollution can significantly increase the risk of the development of Parkinson's disease (PD), but this relationship is inconclusive as ...large-scale prospective studies are limited and the results are inconsistent. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ascertain the adverse health effects of air pollution exposure in a nationwide population using a longitudinal approach.
We conducted a nested case-control study using the National Health Insurance Research Dataset (NHIRD), which consisted of 1,000,000 beneficiaries in the National Health Insurance Program (NHI) in the year 2000 and their medical records from 1995 to 2013 and using public data on air pollution concentrations from monitoring stations across Taiwan released from the Environmental Protection Administration to identify people with ages ≥ 40 years living in areas with monitoring stations during 1995-1999 as study subjects. Then, we excluded subjects with PD, dementia, stroke and diabetes diagnosed before Jan. 1, 2000 and obtained 54,524 subjects to follow until Dec. 31, 2013. In this observational period, 1060 newly diagnosed PD cases were identified. 4240 controls were randomly selected from those without PD using a matching strategy for age, sex, the year of PD diagnosis and the year of entering the NHI program at a ratio of 1:4. Ten elements of air pollution were examined, and multiple logistic regression models were used to measure their risks in subsequent PD development.
The incidence of PD in adults aged ≥ 40 years was 1.9%, and the median duration for disease onset was 8.45 years. None of the chemical compounds (SO2, O3, CO, NOx, NO, NO2, THC, CH4, or NMHC) significantly affected the incidence of PD except for particulate matter. PM10 exposure showed significant effects on the likelihood of PD development (T3 level: > 65μg/m3 versus T1 level: ≤ 54μg/m3; OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.12-1.62, 0.001 ≤ P < 0.01). In addition, comorbid conditions such as dementia (ORs = 3.53-3.93, Ps < 0.001), stroke (ORs = 2.99-3.01, Ps < 0.001), depression (ORs = 2.51-2.64, Ps < 0.001), head injury (ORs = 1.24-1.29, 0.001 ≤ Ps < 0.01 or 0.01 ≤ Ps < 0.05), sleep disorder (OR = 1.23-1.26, 0.001 ≤ Ps < 0.01), and hypertension (ORs = 1.18-1.19, 0.01 ≤ Ps < 0.05) also significantly increased the risk for PD development.
Although PM10 plays a significant role in PD development, the associated chemical/metal compounds that are capable of inducing adverse biological mechanisms still warrant further exploration. Because of a link between comorbid conditions and PM exposure, research on the causal relationship between long-term exposure to PM and the development of PD should be considered with caution because other possible modifiers or mediators, comorbid diseases in particular, may be involved.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background. Many patients with cancer seek complementary and alternative medicine treatments. We investigated the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) by adult cancer patients in Taiwan. ...Methods. We reviewed the Registry for Catastrophic Illness Patients Database of Taiwan, and included all adult patients diagnosed cancer, based on the International Classification of Diseases (ninth revision), from 2001 to 2009 and followed until 2011. This database allowed categorization of patients as TCM users (n = 74 620) or non-TCM users (n = 508 179). All demographic and clinical claims data were analyzed. Results. Compared with non-TCM users, TCM users were younger and more likely to be female, white-collar workers, and reside in highly urbanized areas. The average interval between cancer diagnosis and TCM consultation was 15.3 months. The most common cancer type was breast cancer in TCM users (19.4%), and intrahepatic bile duct cancer in non-TCM users (13.6%). The major condition for which TCM users visited clinics were endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and immunity disorders (23.2%). A total of 33.1% of TCM users visited TCM clinics more than 9 times per year and their time from diagnosis to first TCM consultation was 5.14 months. The most common TCM treatment was Chinese herbal medicine. The common diseases for which cancer patients sought TCM treatment were insomnia, malaise and fatigue, dizziness and headache, gastrointestinal disorders, myalgia and fasciitis, anxiety, and depression. Overall, TCM users had a lower adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for mortality (aHR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.68-0.70) after adjustment for age, sex, urbanization of residence, occupation, annual medical center visits, and annual non–medical center visits. Conclusions. This study provides an overview of TCM usage among adult cancer patients in Taiwan. TCM use varied among patients with different types of cancer. Physicians caring for cancer patients should pay more attention to their patients’ use of complementary TCM.
Background Although sex differences in the epidemiological features of aortic dissection (AD) are known, whether there were sex differences in the associations of comorbidities and risk factors with ...AD is unclear. We evaluated the temporal trends and risk factors of AD by sex. Methods and Results Using claims data from a universal health insurance program linked to the National Death Registry in Taiwan, we identified 16 368 men and 7052 women with newly diagnosed AD from 2005 to 2018. In the case-control analysis, a matched control group without AD was selected for men and women separately. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate risk factors of AD and sex differences. Over the 14 years, the annual incidence of diagnosed AD was 12.69 and 5.34 per 100 000 in men and women, respectively. The 30-day mortality was greater in women than in men (18.1% versus 14.1%; adjusted odds ratio 95% CI, 1.19 1.10-1.29), and the sex difference was observed mainly in patients not treated with surgery. The 30-day mortality declined over time in male patients undergoing surgical treatments, but no significantly temporal change was found in other patient groups stratified by sex and surgery. After multivariable adjustments, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery were associated with a greater increase in the odds of AD occurrence in women than in men. Conclusions Greater 30-day mortality and stronger associations of atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery with AD in women than in men require further attention.
Both adenomyosis and endometriosis are characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial glands and stroma and have been suggested to share some characteristics with malignant tumors. Although ...accumulating evidence indicates that endometriosis is associated with some cancer types, the cancer risks in patients with adenomyosis have been rarely examined. In this study, we investigated the relationship between adenomyosis and risks of common cancers.
This study included a cohort of 12,447 women with adenomyosis but not endometriosis, born in 1951-1984, and a cohort of 124,470 adenomyosis-free women matched by birth year. Their medical records (collected between 1996 and 2011) were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. We first compared the distribution of cancer-free survival (CFS) between cohorts with and without adenomyosis. Subsequently, within the adenomyosis cohort, we examined whether time-to-onset of the identified cancer type was correlated with time-to-onset of adenomyosis. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the distribution of CFS between the adenomyosis and adenomyosis-free cohorts and between the early- and late-diagnosed adenomyosis groups. For comparison, we further evaluated the cancer risks for a cohort of 10,962 women with endometriosis but not adenomyosis and a birth-year matched cohort of 109,620 endometriosis-free women.
Compared with adenomyosis-free women, patients with adenomyosis had higher risks of endometrial and thyroid cancers, with estimated hazard ratios (HRs) (95% confidence interval) of 2.19 (1.51-3.16) and 1.70 (1.29-2.24), respectively. For both cancers, distributions of CFS were not significantly different between the early- and late-diagnosed adenomyosis groups. Furthermore, compared with endometriosis-free women, patients with endometriosis had higher risks of endometrial and ovarian cancers, with HRs of 1.89 (1.07-3.35) and 2.01 (1.27-3.16), respectively.
Women with adenomyosis are at higher risks of endometrial and thyroid cancers, while women with endometriosis are at higher risks of endometrial and ovarian cancers.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
The study aimed to investigate the timeline association with specific dental therapy and osteoradionecrosis (ORN) in oral cancer patients.
Materials and methods
A total of 7394 oral cancer ...patients, including 198 ORN subjects, were retrieved from a Longitudinal Health Insurance Database for Catastrophic Illness Patients of Taiwan and were analyzed with the Cox proportional hazard regression to compare the ORN risk of individual dental treatments under different dental treatments.
Results
The initial dental treatment time significantly impacted on the risk of ORN in oral cancer patients (
P
<0.05). Pre-radiotherapy endodontic treatment and post-radiotherapy scaling or subgingival curettage increased ORN prevalence (hazard ratio HR, 2.28 and 1.77, respectively). Endodontic treatment within 2 weeks to 1 month prior to radiotherapy increased the ORN risk by 5.83-fold. Dental scaling or subgingival curettage initialized from three to 6 months post-radiotherapy raised the ORN prevalence by 2.2-fold. Exodontia initialized within 2 weeks before radiotherapy (HR=1.49) or 1 to 3 months after radiotherapy (HR=2.63) greatly increased ORN prevalence. To perform oral surgery from 3 months pre-radiotherapy to 6 months after radiotherapy increased the 1.85-fold ORN risk. The chemotherapy combined oral surgery increased the ORN prevalence by 2.55-fold.
Conclusions
Timing of dental treatment, including pre-radiotherapy endodontic treatment, post-radiotherapy scaling or subgingival curettage, and oral surgery or exodontia before and after radiotherapy, could closely relate to ORN development in oral cancer patients.
Clinical relevance
Choosing right time to perform appropriate dental treatment could effectively reduce oral infection and ORN risk.
Using population-based representative insurance claims data, the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among diabetes mellitus (DM) patients, as well as whether DM medications alter the ...risk of developing HCC were investigated.
From the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, 19,349 newly diagnosed DM patients 20 years and older and 77,396 comparison subjects without DM were identified from claims from 2000 to 2005. The incidences of HCC at the end of 2008 and the risks associated with hepatitis B and hepatitis C were determined. Whether metformin and thiazolidinediones reduce the risk of developing HCC was also measured.
The incidence of HCC was twice higher in the DM group compared with the non-DM group (21.0 vs. 10.4 per 10,000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.73 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.47-2.03) using multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression. Male sex, cirrhosis, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C were significant independent factors that predict HCC, with HRs of 2.32, 8.65, 2.52, and 5.61, respectively. In the stratified analysis, the HR increased to 72.4 (95% CI=42.9-122) among patients with DM, cirrhosis, and hepatitis C. HCC risk reduction was greater for diabetics taking metformin than those taking thiazolidinediones (51 vs. 44% reduction).
Comorbidity with cirrhosis and/or hepatitis appears to be associated with an extremely increased risk of developing HCC among DM patients. These high-risk patients should be closely monitored for HCC. The use of metformin or thiazolidinediones may reduce the risk of developing HCC.
The objective of this study was to assess the risk of acute pancreatitis among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and identify the roles of co-morbidities and anti-diabetic drugs.
From ...claims data of one million enrollees randomly sampled from a population covered by the Taiwan National Health Insurance, 19,518 adults with type 2 DM diagnosed between 2000 and 2005 were identified. In addition, 78,072 DM-free persons, frequency matched with sex, age, and index year for comparison were identified. Subjects were followed up until the end of 2008 or censored to ascertain incident acute pancreatitis cases and associations with co-morbidities and anti-diabetic drugs.
Patients with type 2 DM had 1.95-fold greater incidence of acute pancreatitis compared with non-diabetics (27.7 vs. 14.2 per 10,000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.89 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.65-2.18) based on multivariable Cox regression analysis. Additive Poisson regression analysis revealed an absolute risk increase of 14.4 per 10,000 person-years (95% CI=13.4-15.5) among type 2 DM patients. Co-morbid alcoholism, hepatitis C infection, and gallstones yielded additional risk of acute pancreatitis among type 2 DM patients (absolute risk increase ranges 86.3, 41.1, and 23.5 per 10,000 person-years, respectively). Patients taking anti-diabetic drugs had a reduced risk of acute pancreatitis, however. The adjusted HR decreased to 0.31 (95% CI=0.18-0.56) among patients who took five different anti-diabetic drugs.
Patients with type 2 DM are at an elevated risk of acute pancreatitis. Alcoholism, hepatitis C infection, and gallstones increase the risk further. However, anti-diabetic drugs reduce the risk as the number of drugs used increases and as the duration of treatment increases.
PDF
