Fang-I Hsieh

Taipei Medical University | TMU · School of Public Health

Background Previous studies of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) or do-not-intubate (DNI) orders in stroke patients have primarily been conducted in North America or Europe. However, characteristics associated with DNR/DNI orders in stroke patients in Asia have not been reported. Methods Based on the Taiwan Stroke Registry, this nationwide cross-sectional...

The induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) has been shown to have therapeutic potential in experimental models of hepatitis and liver fibrosis, which are closely related to liver cancer. In humans, HO-1 induction is transcriptionally modulated by the length of a GT-repeat [(GT)n] in the promoter region. We aimed to investigate the effect of HO-1 (GT)...

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...

Ischemic stroke (IS) is multifactorial causation combining with traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) and genetic risk factors. Combined effects of MMP-7, MMP-8 and MMP-26 on the risk of IS remain incompletely understood. We aimed to assess individual and joint effects for IS risk by weighted genetic risk score (wGRS) from these three genes and...

Objective Features of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarct and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) caused by NOTCH3 mutations vary between ethnicities and regions. In Taiwan, more than 70% of CADASIL patients carry the mutation hot spot of p.R544C. We investigated the prevalence of NOTCH3 p.R544C mutation in stroke patients i...

The effect of RA on recurrent stroke is unknown. Therefore, we examined effects of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on risk of stroke recurrence and investigated the interaction between RA and traditional cardiovascular risk factors on recurrence risk after ischemic stroke (IS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Of 3190 patients with IS or TIA recruited...

Background: Only a few studies have investigated the affect of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on the risk of cerebrovascular disease (CVD)/coronary artery disease (CAD) in young adults. This study, therefore, examined the association between RA and the risk of CVD/CAD in young adults and the interaction effects between cardiovascular risk factors and R...

Background Estrogen plays an important role as an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agent in ischemic stroke. In this study, we analyzed the effect of a polygenic risk score (PRS) constructed using inflammatory genes and estradiol levels on the risk of ischemic stroke. Methods This case-control study was conducted with 624 ischemic stroke patie...

Data S1. Supplemental Methods. Figure S1. Box plot analysis illustrating the distribution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in peripheral blood leukocytes among patients with different ischemic stroke subtypes.

Background Cumulative evidence has shown that low mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content is related to elevated oxidative stress and atherosclerosis, which play important roles in ischemic stroke. The objective of this study was to explore the association between mtDNA content in peripheral blood leukocytes and ischemic stroke. Methods and Results A to...

Background: Arsenic exposure is associated with decreased kidney function. The association between low to moderate arsenic exposure and kidney disease has not been fully clarified. Study design: The association between arsenic exposure from drinking water and chronic kidney disease (CKD) was examined in a long-term prospective observational stud...

Background Asians have higher frequency of intracranial arterial stenosis. The present study aimed to compare the clinical features and outcomes of ischemic stroke patients with and without middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis, assessed by transcranial sonography (TCS), based on the Taiwan Stroke Registry (TSR). Methods Patients with acute ischem...

Objectives The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether carotid artery stenting (CAS) plus medicine in patients with severe carotid artery stenosis provide a better long-term blood pressure (BP) control compared to other medical treatments alone. The other aim was to explore the correlation between post-CAS hypotension within 6 h and l...

In the management of acute ischemic stroke, guideline adherence is often suboptimal, particularly for intravenous thrombolysis or anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation. We sought to improve stroke care quality via a collaborative model, the Breakthrough Series (BTS)-Stroke activity, in a nationwide, multi-center activity in Taiwan. A BTS Collabor...

Background & aims: Arsenic in drinking water is associated with hepatomegaly and death from liver cancer. However, confounding factors related to liver diseases have not been carefully studied. We examined associations between exposure of arsenic in drinking water and risk of hepatitis and cirrhosis, and the interaction with chronic viral hepatiti...

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the most common cause of complex disability in Taiwan. The annual age-standardized mortality rate of stroke is steadily decreasing between 2001 and 2012. The average years of potential life lost before age 70 for stroke is 13.8 years, ranked the fifth in the cause of death. Its national impact is predi...

To investigate whether gallstone disease (GD) increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a large population-based cohort. A study population including 6,981 patients with GD was identified from The Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database between 2004 and 2005. GD patients were defined as patients with principal disc...

The study aims to discover risk factors significantly correlated with insulin resistance among adolescents in Taiwan. A total of 339 study subjects were recruited in this cross-sectional study. A self-administered questionnaire and physical examinations including anthropometrics and biochemistry profiles were collected. Insulin resistance was asses...

Endogenous estrogens play an important role in the overall cardiocirculatory system. However, there are no studies exploring the hormone metabolism and signaling pathway genes together on ischemic stroke, including sulfotransferase family 1E (SULT1E1), catechol-O-methyl-transferase (COMT), and estrogen receptor α (ESR1). A case-control study was co...

Interaction map for young ischemic stroke risk. Values in nodes represent information gain (IG) of individual attribute (main effect). Values between nodes are IGs of each pairwise combination of attributes (interaction effects). A positive entropy (plotted in red or orange) indicates interaction while a negative (plotted in green) indicates redund...

Association between serum estradiol levels and estrogen metabolism and signaling pathway genes among healthy controls. (DOCX)

Estimated haplotype frequencies of ESR1 gene in ischemic stroke patients and healthy controls. (DOCX)

Odds ratios between ESR1 haplotype and the risk of ischemic stroke. (DOCX)

Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval for the risk of ischemic stroke associated with individual ESR1 C-A haplotype and estradiol level. (DOCX)

additional files, figures and tables.

The association between ischemic stroke and 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 12p13, rs12425791 and rs11833579 appears inconsistent across different samples. These SNPs are close to the ninjurin2 gene which may alter the risk of stroke by affecting brain response to ischemic injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate...

Individual susceptibility to arsenic-induced carotid atherosclerosis might be associated with genetic variations in arsenic metabolism. The purpose of this study is to explore the interaction effect on risk of carotid atherosclerosis between arsenic exposure and risk genotypes of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), arsenic (+3) methyltransferase...

Intranasal delivery of liposome-encapsulated inactivated Newcastle Disease virus (NDV) is known to be an effective vaccine for inducing immunity in the respiratory tract from our previous reports. Four-week-old specific pathogen-free chickens were intranasally immunized with NDV entrapped in phosphatidylcholine-liposomes (PC-Lip). The mucosal level...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. However, the relationship between blood levels of MMPs and the extent of carotid atherosclerosis remains uncertain. We assessed blood levels of active MMPs in relation to the extent of carotid plaque formation and intima-media thickness (IMT) in a community popu...

In this study, we evaluated a system for oral vaccine delivery, consisting of liposomes coated first with a layer of tremella and then with an outer layer of acid-induced alginate. In vitro release studies showed that the triple layer of alginate-tremella-liposomes was more resistant to an acidic pH and modulated the release profiles at an alkaline...

Stroke is a leading cause of death around the world. Improving the quality of stroke care is a global priority, despite the diverse healthcare economies across nations. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With the Guidelines-Stroke program (GWTG-Stroke) has improved the quality of stroke care in 790 US academic and commun...

Early lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) has demonstrated clinical benefits in patients with acute coronary syndrome; however, little is known about early LLT in patients with stroke. We evaluated the effect of in-hospital initiation of LLT on the clinical outcomes of patients with stroke. The Taiwan Stroke Registry prospectively collected data from pati...

Background: Results from previous studies regarding relationships between age at menarche and cardiovascular disease remain controversial. This study investigated the association between endogenous estrogen exposure and ischemic stroke risk. Methods: A total of 189 ischemic stroke patients and 192 age-matched healthy postmenopausal women were recru...

To explore the relationship between the genetic polymorphisms of PPARgamma (Pro12Ala, C1431T, and C-2821T) and the risk of ischemic stroke and to investigate whether these genetic polymorphisms of PPARgamma would modify the risk of ischemic stroke among patients with hypertension or diabetes. The case-control study was conducted with 537 ischemic s...

To evaluate the effect on decrease in blood pressure of modifying risk factors for stroke, such as blood lipid profiles, diet habits and indices of body weight, through a family-based nutrition health education programme among hypertensive patients and pre-hypertensive subjects without taking any antihypertensive drugs. This was a community-based p...

Erectile dysfunction (ED) has a profound impact on the quality of life of many men. Many risk factors are associated with ED, such as aging, sex hormone levels, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes mellitus. Arsenic exposure could damage peripheral vessels and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the relationship bet...

To compare the differences in DNA aberrations between arsenic-exposed and non-arsenic-exposed transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), we analyzed 19 arsenic-exposed and 29 non-arsenic-exposed urinary TCCs from Chi-Mei Hospital using comparative genomic hybridization. DNA aberrations were detected in 42 TCCs including 19 arsenic-exposed and 23 non-arseni...

A hospital-based case-control study was conducted near a former black-foot disease (BFD)-endemic area in southwestern Taiwan to examine the possible risk factors and genetic susceptibility for urinary transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). A total of 221 patients with pathologically confirmed TCC and 223 age-sex-matched control subjects from urology ou...

Arsenic had been reported to be associated with carotid atherosclerosis. However, there were few studies to evaluate the association between the susceptible gene of lipid metabolism and inflammation and carotid atherosclerosis among arsenic exposure residents. The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between the genetic polymorphism...

Aromatic amines from cigarette smoking or occupational exposure, recognized risk factors for bladder cancer, are metabolized by N-acetyltransferases (NAT). This study examined the association of (NAT) 1 and 2 genotypes with the risk of smoking-related bladder cancer. A total of 74 pathologically confirmed bladder cancer patients and 184 controls we...

In order to elucidate the relationships among arsenic methylation capacity, body retention, and genetic polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase (GST) M1 and T1, a total of 115 study subjects were recruited from Lanyang Basin located on the northeast coast of Taiwan. Specimens of drinking water, blood, urine, hair and toenail were collected from...