Chaur-Jong Hu

Taipei Medical University | TMU · Department of Neurology

Our systematic review and meta-analysis estimated the prevalence of post-COVID sleep disturbances in adult population. We systematically searched relevant studies from four databases that reported post-COVID sleep disturbances prevalence with a mean or median follow-up duration of ≥28 days. We identified 153 eligible papers, with a total COVID-19 p...

Background Previous observational studies have shown that people with dental scaling (DS) had decreased risk of stroke. However, limited information is available on the association between DS and poststroke outcomes. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of regular DS on the complications and mortality after stroke. Methods We conducted...

Background: Hypertension and oxidative stress are involved in the pathophysiological mechanism of stroke. We aimed to investigate the modification impact of the pro-oxidant-anti-oxidant balance (PAB) on the association between hypertension and stroke recurrence (SR). Methods: A cross-sectional design was conducted from December 2019 to December...

Gut microbiota (GM) are involved in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and might correlate to the machinery of the gut-brain axis. Alteration of the GM profiles becomes a potential therapy strategy in AD. Here, we found that plasmon-activated water (PAW) therapy altered GM profile and reduced AD symptoms in APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mic...

The cerebral vascular system stringently regulates cerebral blood flow (CBF). The components of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) protect the brain from pathogenic infections and harmful substances, efflux waste, and exchange substances; however, diseases develop in cases of blood vessel injuries and BBB dysregulation. Vascular pathology is concurrent...

Introduction: Patients with dementia have a 1.42 times higher risk of hospitalization than those without. Preparing and educating caregivers by counseling may attenuate the frequency of hospitalization and the financial burden on the health-care system. We conducted a retrospective observational study to verify whether caregiver counseling would b...

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognitive impairment begins 10‐15 years later than neurodegeneration in the brain. Plasma biomarkers are promising candidates for assessing neurodegeneration in people with normal cognition. It has been reported that subjects with the concentration product of plasma amyloid β 1‐42 and total Tau protein, i.e. Aβ1‐42 x T‐...

Cognitive dysfunction is a core feature of dementia spectrum disorders but simple screening tests are less sensitive to detect the deficits, especially in the very early stage of disease course using most standardized test instruments. This results in delayed discovery of disease onset and opportunity for early interventions that might be more effe...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) poses a substantial healthcare burden in the rapidly aging Asian population. Early diagnosis of AD, by means of biomarkers, can lead to interventions that might alter the course of the disease. The amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration (AT[N]) framework, which classifies biomarkers by their core pathophysiological features, i...

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) exhibit distinct gut microbiota, which may promote gut-derived inflammation. Rifaximin is a nonabsorbable antibiotic that can modify gut microbiota. The present study investigated the effect of rifaximin on gut microbiota and inflammation status in PD. The study examined the effect of long-term rifaximin treat...

Population aging has challenged the treatment of cognitive impairment or dementia. Vascular dementia is the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitive consequences after ischemic brain injury have been recognized as a preferred target for therapeutic strategies, prompting the search for potential agents. The keyword “vasc...

What is known and objective: Low treatment persistence and adherence in patients with dementia results in a rapid loss of disease control. This pilot study evaluated the impact of pharmacist-provided caregiver counselling on treatment persistence, adherence, quality of life (QoL) in patients with dementia, as well as caregiver's knowledge of demen...

Background Poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is a prevalent cause of disability in people with stroke. PSCI results from either lesion-dependent loss of cognitive function or augmentation of Alzheimer's pathology due to vascular insufficiency. The lack of prestroke cognitive assessments limits the clear understanding of the impact of PSCI on c...

Background: Comorbidity, along with aging, affects stroke-induced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We examined the potential role of diet quality in modifying the association between comorbidity and HRQoL in patients with stroke. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 951 patients with stroke from December 2019 to December 2020 a...

Background The incidence of ischemic stroke has been increasing in the young population over the past 20 years. Poststroke epilepsy (PSE) is a common complication after stroke. However, few population-based studies with sufficient follow-up have investigated factors associated with PSE, especially factors related to comorbidities and unhealthy life...

The influence of red yeast rice (RYR) on the risk of incident stroke remains underexplored. We aimed to compare the risk of stroke between people with and without use of RYR prescriptions. We used research data from the National Health Insurance Program in Taiwan and identified 34,723 adults (aged ≥20 years) who first received the RYR prescription...

Background: Differential abundance of gut microbiota has found to be associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the relative abundance of gut microbiota between dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in AD is not well studied. Objective: We attempted to identify differentially enriched gut microbes and their metabolic pathways in A...

Introduction Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) cannot be neglected because it drastically influences the daily life of patients and their families. However, there are no studies exploring the association between preclinical blood biomarkers of neurodegeneration including plasma amyloid-β (Aβ), tau, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)...

Patients who previously suffered a stroke have increased risks of mortality and complications after surgeries, but the optimal anesthesia method is not fully understood. We aimed to compare the outcomes after surgeries for stroke patients who received general anesthesia (GA) and neuraxial anesthesia (NA). Using health insurance research data, we id...

Subjects with comorbidities are at risk for neurodegeneration. There is a lack of a direct relationship between comorbidities and neurodegeneration. In this study, immunomagnetic reduction (IMR) assays were utilized to assay plasma Aβ 1–42 and total tau protein (T-Tau) levels in poststroke (PS, n = 27), family history of Alzheimer’s disease (ADFH,...

Background Previous studies demonstrated differential abundances of gut microbiota between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and normal controls (NCs). However, gut microbiota distribution between dementia and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) in AD subjects lacks clear data. With whole‐genome shotgun metagenomic sequencing (WGS), we aimed to identi...

Background: Unfavorable prognoses are often accompanied for hyperglycemic stroke patients. This study aimed to construct a hyperglycemia/diabetes-derived polygenic risk score (PRS) to improve the predictive performance for poor outcome risks after a stroke and to evaluate its potential clinical application. Methods: A hospital-based cohort study...

Objective The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) is a 100-points cognitive test used in detecting dementia in many countries. There has been no validation study of the ACE-III in patients with suspected dementia in a Taiwanese population, where the language is traditional Chinese. We aimed to culturally adapt and validate the ACE-III...

Background: In Alzheimer's disease (AD), cognitive impairment begins 10-15 years later than neurodegeneration in the brain. Plasma biomarkers are promising candidates for assessing neurodegeneration in people with normal cognition. It has been reported that subjects with the concentration of plasma amyloid-β 1-42×total tau protein higher than 455...

The risk and outcomes of diabetes in patients with epilepsy remains unclear. We evaluated these risks using an epilepsy cohort analysis and a diabetes admission analysis. In the epilepsy cohort analysis, we identified 2854 patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy in 2000–2008 from the research data of National Health Insurance in Taiwan. Using Propen...

Ischemic stroke is the leading cause of mortality and long-term disability worldwide. Disruption of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a prominent pathophysiological mechanism, responsible for a series of subsequent inflammatory cascades that exacerbate the damage to brain tissue. However, the benefit of recanalization is limited in most patients bec...

IntroductionConcentrations of plasma biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease have been reported to be as low as several tens of picograms/milliliter (pg/ml). However, in assays measuring these biomarkers, it is likely that repeated measurements are necessary to obtain reliable values.Methods We performed assays as a single test or as duplica...

IntroductionThe current study aimed to provide data on the effectiveness of the 10 cm2 rivastigmine patch in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a real-world setting in Taiwan.Methods This was a 48-week, single-arm, open-label, observational, and post-marketing study conducted across seven centers in Taiwan between May 5, 2016 and July 10, 20...

Aging contributes to the progression of vascular dysfunction and is a major nonreversible risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using arterial pulse-wave measurements, frequency-domain pulse analysis, and machine-learning analysis in distinguishing vascular aging. Radial pulse signals we...

Introduction Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) cannot be neglected because it drastically influences the daily life of patients and their families. However, there are no studies exploring the association between preclinical blood biomarkers of neurodegeneration including plasma amyloid-β (Aβ), tau and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)...

We previously showed a hydroxamic acid-based histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), compound 13, provides neuroprotection against chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) both in vitro under oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) conditions and in vivo under bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) conditions. Intriguingly, the protective effect of...

Background and purpose: The rate of donepezil discontinuation and the underlying reasons for discontinuation in Asian patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are currently unknown. We aimed to determine the treatment discontinuation rates in AD patients who had newly been prescribed donepezil in routine clinical practice in Asia. Methods: This 1-...

Traumatic brain injury leads to major brain anatomopathological damages underlined by neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and progressive neurodegeneration, ultimately leading to motor and cognitive deterioration. The multiple pathological events resulting from traumatic brain injury can be addressed not by a single therapeutic approach, but rather...

Aim To investigate the clinical and genetic features of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) type 3A (SPG3A) in Taiwan. Methods Mutational analysis of the ATL1 gene was performed for 274 unrelated Taiwanese HSP patients. The diagnosis of SPG3A was ascertained by the presence of a heterozygous pathogenic mutation in ATL1. The SPG3A patients received...

Purpose Although rare, orbital cavernous hemangioma (OCH) is the most common benign orbital neoplasm in adults and may cause vision disturbance or loss due to optic nerve compression. The conventional treatment is surgical excision, which carries a risk of intraoperative nerve damage, whereas gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) can be a safe and effect...

Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a cerebrovascular disease that presents with vascular stenosis and a hazy network of collateral formations in angiography. However, the detailed pathogenic pathway remains unknown. Studies have indicated that in addition to variations in the of genetic factor RNF213, unusual circulating angiogenetic factors observed in pat...

Background: Parkinson disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disease, has no cure or applicable disease-modifying approach, only symptomatic therapy. Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction play key roles in PD pathophysiology. Animal studies have demonstrated that photobiomodulation (PBM) may enhance mitochondrial function...

In the hospital, a sleep postures monitoring system is usually adopted to transform sensing signals into sleep behaviors. However, a home-care sleep posture monitoring system needs to be user friendly. In this paper, we present iSleePost—a user-friendly home-care intelligent sleep posture monitoring system. We address the labor-intensive labeling i...

Background The utilization of traditional Chinese medicine is a common therapeutic approach for stroke patients in Chinese population, but little is known about the effect of Bu Yang Huan Wu Tang (BYHWT) on post-stroke diabetes. Purpose We aimed to evaluate the risk of diabetes in stroke patients who used BYHWT. Study design A retrospective cohor...

Background and purpose The CHA2DS2‐VASc score has immense prognostic value in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). We aim to determine the usefulness of advanced renal dysfunction and its addition to the CHA2DS2‐VASc score in improving predictive accuracy. Methods In total, 3,775 ESUS patients were enrolled from a nationwide...

Background: People with cognitive impairment are susceptible to fall. Previous studies regarding balance and gait enrolled patients with various severity of dementia. Quantification of the balance and gait performance of people with cognitive impairment may help identify their postural instability and fall risks. Aim: We investigated the differe...

Objective: To evaluate the long-term risk of stroke and poststroke adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). Methods: We used research data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Program from 2000 to 2005 and identified 20,072 adults aged ≥30 years who were newly diagnosed with HF. Frequency matching based on age and sex was used to...

Background and aims Limited information is available regarding the association between statins and pressure ulcers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the beneficial effects of statins on pressure ulcers in stroke patients. Methods Using the claims data of Taiwan's National Health Insurance, we conducted a retrospective cohort study and iden...

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the long-term risk of dementia in patients with periodontitis and its associated factors. Materials and methods: Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database, we identified 56018 patients aged ≥50 years with newly diagnosed periodontitis in 2000-2008. A cohort of 56018 adults without periodontitis was selected for...

Background and aim: Previous studies indicated that the HDAC3 and HDAC9 genes play critical roles in atherosclerosis and ischemic stroke (IS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of combined single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the HDAC3 and HDAC9 genes with the susceptibility to IS. Methods: A case-control study was condu...

The authors wish to make the following changes to this paper [...].

Objective: To develop an easily applicable screening score to guide NOTCH3 p.R544C genetic testing for patients who presented with acute ischemic cerebrovascular events in Taiwan. Methods: 1734 patients who presented with ischemic cerebrovascular events were enrolled from the Formosa Stroke Genetic Consortium stroke registry and were screened fo...

Background Alzheimer's disease (AD) will become a prominent public health issue in the future given its cognitively debilitating nature. As the advent of global ageing society is expected, AD may bring tremendous socioeconomical costs if current diagnosis methods stay put. In this article, we performed a systematic review of a recent (less than 10...

Background: The Severe Impairment Battery (SIB) was developed to evaluate cognitive functions in moderate to severe dementia patients. We aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Taiwanese version of the SIB (T-SIB) in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: AD patients with clinical dementia rating (CDR)...

Objectives Tremor is common in patients with Lewy body disease (LBD) and not rare in normal individuals. Prevalence of tremor in patients with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and its association with other comorbidities are seldom studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the patient characteristics of VCI associated with tremor and to...

Objective Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal motor neuron degenerative disease with characteristic of progressive general muscle weakness and atrophy. ALS is still lack of efficient treatment and laboratory biomarkers. In this study, we longitudinally examined ALS patients' peripheral blood to search potential biomarkers. 18 ALS patient...

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common cause of motor neuron disease, and effective treatment for ALS is still lacking. Transactive response (TAR) -DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43) is aggregated in the neurons of ALS patients. Animal studies shown TDP-43 aggregation can be attenuated by enhancing autophagy by tamoxifen...

Objective To investigate whether dynamic cerebral autoregulation (CA) and neuroimaging characteristics are determinants of poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). Methods Eighty patients within 7 days of acute ischemic stroke and 35 age‐ and sex‐matched controls were enrolled. In the patients with stroke, brain magnetic resonance imaging and dynam...

Aim: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with unfavorable outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke. One major metabolic derangement of CKD is dyslipidemia, which can be managed by statins. This study aimed to investigate whether the association of statins with post-stroke outcomes would be affected by renal function. Methods: We evaluated t...

Cognitive decline is an important issue of global public health. Cognitive aging might begin at middle adulthood, the period particularly vulnerable to stress in lifespan. Essence of chicken (EOC) has consistently demonstrated its beneficial effects on various cognitive domains as nutritional supplementation. This study primarily aimed to examine t...

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia, but the treatment is still lacking. Although many studies have reported that histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) confer protective effects against ischemic and hypoxic injuries, their role in VaD is still uncertain. Previous studies shown, one HDACi protected against cognitive...

Background/purpose Metabolites in blood have been found associated with the occurrence of vascular diseases, but its role in the functional recovery of stroke is unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the untargeted metabolomics at the acute stage of ischemic stroke is able to predict functional recovery. Methods One hundred and...

Ischemic preconditioning with nonlethal ischemia can be protective against lethal forebrain ischemia. We hypothesized that aging may aggravate ischemic susceptibility and reduce brain plasticity against preconditioning. Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a sensitive tool to detect brain integrity and white matter architecture. Our...

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Background Hyperglycemia in acute stroke leads to poor neurological outcomes. The role of microRNA (miRNA) in hyperglycemia‐associated genes can provide new avenues for stroke prognostic applications. We aimed to identify novel genes and their regulated miRNAs that are associated with hyperglycemia‐induced unfavorable stroke outcomes and further va...

The pathophysiology of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is associated with chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH). Increased high-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1), a nonhistone protein involved in injury and inflammation, has been established in the acute phase of CCH. However, the role of HMGB1 in the chronic phase of CCH remains unclear. We...

Background: Insulin resistance (IR), considered a hallmark of diabetes at the cellular level, is implicated in pre-diabetes, results in type 2 diabetes, and negatively affects mitochondrial function. Diabetes is increasingly associated with enhanced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD); however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This...

Blood-based biomarker assays of plasma β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau have the advantages of cost-effective and less invasive for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We used two independent cohorts to cross-validate the clinical use of the nannoparticle-based immunomagnetic assay of plasma biomarkers to assist in the differential diagnosis of early...

Obesity is one of the factors associated with cognitive impairment. However, obesity may differently affect cognitive function in different age groups, and scarce data are available from low-and middle-income countries. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the association between obesity and cognitive impairment among 143 elderly individual...