Integrating satellite information, land use regression, and machine learning to estimate the spatiotemporal variation of ionic composition in PM across Taiwan.

The growing understanding of PM compositions has promoted the application of machine learning in exposure estimation. However, data-driven approaches may neglect the necessity for expert knowledge. This study presents a theory-guided approach combining land use regression (LUR), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) to estimate the spatiotemporal variation of ionic PM in Taiwan.

Bioprosthetic vs Mechanical Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients 40 to 75 Years of Age.

Background: The choice of bioprosthetic or mechanical surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) should balance individual valve durability with the potential liabilities of oral anticoagulation.

Objectives: To inform clinical practice, this study sought to evaluate contemporary, real-world, long-term AVR outcomes from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (STS ACSD).

Methods: All patients undergoing primary isolated bioprosthetic or mechanical AVR were identified.

Residential Proximity Land Use Characteristics and Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds' Impact on Pulmonary Function in Asthmatic Children.

Background: Urban air pollution adversely affects children's respiratory systems, but the impact of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on children's pulmonary function remains unclear. This study aims to identify exhaled VOCs linked to land use characteristics and reduced pulmonary function in asthmatic children, as well as to explore environmental thresholds influencing VOC exposure levels.

Methods: We enrolled 97 asthmatic children, aged 7 to 20, from Changhua County, Taiwan, and collected personal and residential data, collected exhaled VOC samples, and conducted pulmonary function tests.

Assessing the Relevance of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire in Patients With Tricuspid Regurgitation: The Tri-QOL Qualitative Study.

Background: Validly measuring disease-specific health status is critical in patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) to quantify the benefit of different interventions. The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) has been used to assess health status in patients with severe TR, but its content validity in this patient population is unknown, including whether additional questions are needed to supplement the KCCQ.

Methods: Twenty participants with symptomatic severe TR from 2 midwestern clinical sites were interviewed in 2023 using a semistructured guide.

Challenges in the Development and Evaluation of Pediatric Heart Valve Technologies.

Background: In October 2022, the Heart Valve Collaboratory and United States Food and Drug Administration convened a global multidisciplinary workshop to address the unmet clinical need to promote and accelerate the development of pediatric-specific heart valve technologies.

Methods: The Pediatric Heart Valve Global Multidisciplinary Workshop was convened in October 2022. Key stakeholders, including expert clinicians in pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, valve manufacturers, engineers, and scientists were assembled to review the current state of the art, discuss unique challenges in the premarket and postmarket evaluation of pediatric valve therapies, and highlight emerging technologies that show potential to address some of the key unmet needs of children with valve disease.

Projections of Climate Change Impact on Acute Heat Illnesses in Taiwan: Case-Crossover Study.

Background: With global warming, the number of days with extreme heat is expected to increase and may cause more acute heat illnesses. While decreasing emissions may mitigate the climate impacts, its effectiveness in reducing acute heat illnesses remains uncertain. Taiwan has established a real-time epidemic surveillance and early warning system to monitor acute heat illnesses since January 1, 2011.

Estimating monthly NO, O, and SO concentrations via an ensemble three-stage procedure with downscaled satellite remote sensing data and ground measurements.

The gaseous air pollutants nitrogen dioxide (NO), ozone (O), and sulfur dioxide (SO), in addition to particulate matter (PM), are known to be associated with many adverse health effects. However, exposure estimates may not be available in rural or mountainous areas without monitoring stations. In this study, we retrieved satellite remote sensing data for NO, O, and SO from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) L3 products.

Validation of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire in Patients With Tricuspid Regurgitation.

Importance: Improving patients' health status is a key goal of treating tricuspid regurgitation (TR). The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) is a heart failure disease-specific health status measure used to capture the health status impact of TR and the benefit of transcatheter tricuspid valve intervention (TTVI), but its validity in this clinical setting is unknown.

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the KCCQ in patients with TR.

Effective orifice diameter: a new sizing parameter of surgical valve prostheses to inform valve selection.

Background: The labeled sizes of surgical valve prostheses and their discordance with the physical internal valve orifice sizes has long been a controversy in the cardiac surgery community, leading many to believe it to be a contributing factor in prosthesis-patient mismatch following valvular replacement surgery. In an attempt to address this issue, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 5840-2:2021 standard for surgical valve prostheses recommends that a new sizing parameter, namely, the effective orifice diameter, be provided in labeling by all manufacturers as an indicator of the true flow-passing capacity of a prosthetic valve.

Methods: The ISO Cardiac Valves Working Group conducted a multi-laboratory round-robin study to investigate whether the effective orifice diameter of a prosthetic surgical valve could be derived repeatably and reproducibly through steady forward-flow testing.

Sequential Ring Opening/In Situ SO-Capture/Alkynylation of Cyclopropanols with Alkynyl Triflones Initiated by Energy Transfer.

A visible-light-triggered ring opening/in situ SO-capture/alkynylation sequence of cyclopropyl alcohols with alkynyl triflones using 4CzIPN as a triplet energy transfer photocatalyst is herein described. This metal-free protocol provides a straightforward and atom-economical approach to alkynyl-substituted γ-keto sulfones with a broad scope of substituents. In this transformation, alkynyl triflones could be used as both radical acceptors and SO donors.

Vertical variation of source-apportioned PM and selected volatile organic compounds near an elevated expressway in an urban area.

Fine particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are associated with adverse health effects and show spatial variation in three dimensions. The present study attempted to evaluate source contributions of PM and toxic VOCs in a metropolitan area focusing on the associated vertical variations. A special emphasis is put on the effects of the elevated expressway on the vertical variability of contribution estimates of the identified sources.

Supplementation of hyaluronic acid injections with vitamin D improve knee function by attenuating synovial fluid oxidative stress in osteoarthritis patients with vitamin D insufficiency.

Objectives: There is still controversy about the effect of vitamin D supplementation on osteoarthritis (OA). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of vitamin D supplementation with Hyaluronic acid (HA) injection on OA.

Methods: We investigated serum vitamin D levels and oxidative stress (OS) in synovial fluid from patients with OA who underwent total knee arthroplasty (grade IV, = 24) and HA injection (grade II and III, = 40).

Identifying and quantifying PM pollution episodes with a fusion method of moving window technique and constrained Positive Matrix Factorization.

PM pollution episodes rapidly and significantly deteriorate the air quality and are a critical concern worldwide. This study developed a fusion method based on the moving window dataset technique and constrained Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) to differentiate and characterize potential factors in a PM episode case assuming having one new contributor. The hourly PM compositions of elements, ions and carbonaceous components, were collected from September to December 2020 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Standardized Definitions for Bioprosthetic Valve Dysfunction Following Aortic or Mitral Valve Replacement: JACC State-of-the-Art Review.

Bioprosthetic valve dysfunction (BVD) and bioprosthetic valve failure (BVF) may be caused by structural or nonstructural valve dysfunction. Both surgical and transcatheter bioprosthetic valves have limited durability because of structural valve deterioration. The main objective of this summary of experts participating in a virtual workshop was to propose standardized definitions for nonstructural and structural BVD and BVF following aortic or mitral biological valve replacement with the goal of facilitating research reporting and implementation of these terms in clinical practice.

Bioprosthetic Aortic Valve Hemodynamics: Definitions, Outcomes, and Evidence Gaps: JACC State-of-the-Art Review.

A virtual workshop was organized by the Heart Valve Collaboratory to identify areas of expert consensus, areas of disagreement, and evidence gaps related to bioprosthetic aortic valve hemodynamics. Impaired functional performance of bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement is associated with adverse patient outcomes; however, this assessment is complicated by the lack of standardization for labelling, definitions, and measurement techniques, both after surgical and transcatheter valve replacement. Echocardiography remains the standard assessment methodology because of its ease of performance, widespread availability, ability to do serial measurements over time, and correlation with outcomes.

Glaucoma in rural China (the Rural Epidemiology for Glaucoma in China (REG-China)): a national cross-sectional study.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of glaucoma with associated factors in the rural populations of 10 provinces in China.

Design: A population-based cross-sectional study.

Methods: All participants aged 6 years or older from 10 provinces completed visual acuity testing, slit-lamp examination, ophthalmoscopy and non-contact tonometry.

Urban Air Pollution and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Adolescents and Young Adults.

Purpose: The contribution of air pollution to subclinical atherosclerosis in a young population remains limited. This study aimed to assess whether long-term exposure to urban air pollutants increases carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in adolescents and young adults.

Methods: This study included 789 subjects between the ages of 12 and 30 years who lived in the Taipei metropolis from a cohort of young Taiwanese individuals.

Urban Fine Particulate Matter and Elements Associated with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Adolescents and Young Adults.

The relationships between the elemental constituents of PM and atherosclerosis remain limited, especially in young populations. This study included 755 subjects aged 12-30 years in the Taipei metropolis. A land use regression model was used to estimate residential annual mean concentrations of PM and eight elemental constituents.