Hsiu Ting Tsai

• Taipei Medical University

Background: Several studies have been conducted to investigate the trends of erectile dysfunction (ED) among individuals with diabetes. Nonetheless, a comprehensive analysis of the literature concerning ED among individuals with diabetes is required, especially in the nursing field, which yet remains elusive.Purpose: This study uses bibliometric an...

Background: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is associated with morbidity and mortality in people with diabetes mellitus. Aims: In this study, we determined relationships of the body-mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, and ankle-brachial index (ABI) with diabetic peripheral neuropathy ris...

This study aimed to identify the independent and synergistic effects of body mass index, fasting blood glucose, and hemoglobin A1c on ankle‐brachial index in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This cross‐sectional study involved 1096 participants who were measured using questionnaires, a digital scale, and a height measurement device. Blood marker was exami...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274972.].

Background: Both the high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and tobacco exposure are significantly associated with cervical neoplasm risk. Immune cells play important roles in carcinogenesis. However, it is still unclear whether immune cells have a mediating effect on the HR-HPV infection and tobacco exposure with cervical neoplasm devel...

Background: COVID-19 incidence in Indonesia was high among adolescents, but vaccine acceptance remains low. The unequal geographical distribution of the health workforce and health facilities in Indonesia, including a lower number of health workers and facilities in Maluku-Papua, resulted in a low rate of vaccine acceptance. Knowledge, attitude, b...

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore the effect of synergistic interaction and the independence of physical activity and inflammatory markers, including platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), on sleep quality in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional...

Objective: Bone marrow suppression is the most common side effect of chemotherapy that may lead to discontinuation for treatment pertaining to patients during the therapy course. Acupuncture may relieve bone marrow suppression with regulation hematopoietic function during chemotherapy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a...

Background: High-grade inflammation represents a critical contribution to the onset of depression and might be manageable by physical activity (PA). Nevertheless, no study has examined synergistic interactions of insufficient PA and high values of the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) on psychological problems. Objective: We investigated...

Aim To explore the effects of disability, depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms on patients' and their partners' quality of life (QoL) using the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM). Design A cross‐sectional study using actor–partner interdependence model. Methods We recruited 183 dyads of stroke survivors and their family caregivers in I...

Purpose To explore the wider determinant factor of citizens’ spirituality, health engagement, health belief model, and attitudes towards vaccines toward acceptance and willingness to pay for a Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Methods A community-based cross-sectional online investigation with convenience sampling was utilized to re...

Background Gout is triggered by high urate levels and causes inflammation, pain, and an impaired quality of life. Immersion in water at 20–30°C reduces inflammation and pain in arthritis. Yet, relationships of immersion in water at 20–30°C with urate levels and the nucleotide-binding domain (NOD)-like receptor protein 1 (NLRP1) inflammasome have ne...

The current study aimed to explore sex-influenced risk factors for cognitive impairment among community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan. This cross-sectional study was a secondary analysis using a population-based design. We accessed and analyzed data from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging survey of 2011. Participants were older adults aged ≥5...

Objectives Caring for a family member with a life-threatening illness may lead to increased levels of psychological morbidity. Given the lack of recognition of caregivers’ grief, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of anticipatory grief disorders in caregivers of persons with a life-threatening illness for better intervention and managemen...

Background: Gout arthritis is an autoinflammatory arthritis that generates chronic long-term pain. Pain impacts physical activities, joint mobility, stress, anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Cold-water immersion therapy reduces inflammation and pain associated with gout arthritis. However, cold-water immersion therapy has not been conducted...

Background Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and a major cause of death in women worldwide. Chemotherapy is mainly used to treat and control the progression of breast cancer. Leukopenia is the most common side effect of chemotherapy which may decrease immune function and further lead to serious fatal infections. The purpose of this st...

The Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) has been recommended to validate illness perception. Nevertheless, this measurement has yet to be validated with an assessment of the construct and convergent validities and reliability in Indonesia. Our study aimed to psychometrically test the 8-item B-IPQ among Indonesians with type 2 diabetes me...

Background: Most Indonesians with hyperuricemia are less than 40 years old, which suggests an increasing gout risk in the country. Meanwhile, untreated hyperuricemia was also suggested to lead to hypertension. Yet, it is unclear whether blood pressure (BP) plays a mediating role between urate and gout. Objective: We investigated the mediating ef...

Background and objective Acquired accurate clinical nursing skills are among the most important core nursing competencies for nursing students, as nursing students' inadequate skill capacities might endanger patients' safety. Therefore, it is essential to develop teaching strategies to strengthen students' nursing skills. This study examined the ef...

To analyze the association between smoking status (active smoking and exposure to Second-Hand Smoking (SHS)) and the synergistic effect of smoking status and BMI with gout risk, a community-based case-control design was undertaken among 385 participants, including 304 healthy controls and 81 gout patients from seven community health services. Adjus...

Purpose: Stroke is the third most common cause of disability worldwide. In order to effectively study the disability status experienced by stroke survivors, it is important to identify reliable and valid tools to measure disability that can be administered to this population. No previous study had been conducted on the Indonesian version of the WH...

Countries throughout the world, including Indonesia, are facing a complex problem with regards to HIV infection incidences and its prevalence. This is despite some local governments in some provinces of Indonesia working together with the Social Ministry of Indonesia to eradicate prostitution. There are high numbers of HIV sub-types in Indonesia su...

Ya-Wen Shih,1 Hsiu-Ting Tsai1,2 1School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Post-Baccalaureate Program in Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, TaiwanCorrespondence: Hsiu-Ting TsaiPost-Baccalaureate Program in Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wu-Xing St...

Background: Currently, the determinants of anxiety and its related factors in the general population affected by COVID-19 are poorly understood. We examined the effects of spirituality, knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on anxiety regarding COVID-19. Methods: Online cross-sectional data (n = 1082) covered 17 provinces. The assessment inc...

The present systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the association between exposure to radiofrequency radiation and the risk of breast cancer. The published studies that were available in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, Web of Science, Airiti Library, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations and P...

Introduction Breast cancer is a common malignancy worldwide. Smartphones have gradually become indispensable to our modern lives and have already changed lifestyles of human beings. To our best knowledge, no study has investigated the relationship between smartphone use and breast cancer. This case-control study purposely investigated the relations...

Alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) and walking are strongly recommended for ameliorating oxidative stress and inflammation. Nevertheless, there is a lack of information on the combination of both on alleviating inflammation, oxidative stress, and improving the quality of life (QoL). We investigated the synergistic effects of drinking AEW and walking...

Cervical cancer is one of the most prevalent malignant neoplasms worldwide. We investigated whether leisure-time physical activity is sufficient to decrease the cervical neoplasia risk and provide suggested guidance of metabolic equivalents of task–hours per week (MET-h/week) spent on leisure-time physical activity to prevent cervical neoplasia. Ul...

Secondhand smoke (SHS) and physical inactivity are thought to be associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the synergistic effect of SHS with physical inactivity and their relationships with T2DM–associated inflammation biomarkers have not been estimated. We investigated the roles of SHS exposure and physical inactivity and their synergi...

Background: Physical inactivity and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-associated inflammatory biomarkers are correlated with poor quality of life (QoL). However, no study has investigated the synergistic effect of physical activity (PA) and lower neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on QoL. Objective: We examined the independent and synergistic effec...

Background People with hepatocellular carcinoma who undergo transcatheter arterial chemoembolization usually experience back pain due to lie supine for at least 4 hours to avoid bleeding and hematoma. Body positioning is an effective and safe method for decreasing back pain in people with transfemoral cardiac catheterization; however, its effects a...

Objective Low sleep quality (LSQ) activates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and is related to arousal. Nursing staff, who work in shifts, tend to exhibit LSQ, which affects the level of vigor after awakening. This study investigated the effects of nocturnal sleep quality on diurnal cortisol profiles and sustained attention in day-shif...

Nurses who experience workplace violence exhibit compromised care quality and decreased work morale, which may increase their turnover rate. This study explored prevalence of workplace violence, the reaction of victims, and workplace strategies adopted to prevent violence among acute psychiatric settings in northern Taiwan. A cross-sectional study...

The effects of Terminalia catappa leaf extracts (TCE) have been widely investigated, including its antioxidative, anti‐inflammatory, and antidiabetic activity, as well as its antimetastatic effects on several types of human cancer. However, no study has examined the antimetastatic potential of TCE in cervical cancer cells. This study aimed to eluci...

Background: Chemotherapy is used mainly to treat and control the progression of gynecological cancer. Bone marrow suppression, one of the adverse side effects of chemotherapy, may decrease immune function, increasing the risk of serious, fatal infections. Purpose: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of noninvasive acupressu...

Background We identified rs17071138 T/C, rs3744941 C/T, and rs8089104 T/C gene polymorphisms of SERPINB5 (mammary serine protease inhibitor) that are specific to patients with oral cancer susceptibility and their clinicopathological status. Methodology/Principal findings In total, 1342 participants, including 601 healthy controls and 741 patients...

Objective: To explore the temporal effects of psychological distress on the functional recovery among stroke survivors. Design: A longitudinal follow-up study. All participants were interviewed at 5 days after stroke onset, and at 1, 2, 3, and 6 months after discharge from acute care hospitals. Setting: Neurology inpatient and outpatient depar...

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify gene polymorphisms of mammary serine protease inhibitor (Maspin) specific to patients with oral cancer susceptibility and clinicopathological status. Methodology/principal findings: Three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the Maspin gene from 741 patients with oral cancer and 601 non-...

Cervical neoplasia is one of the most prevalent malignant neoplasms worldwide. Ribonucleotide reductase 1 (RRM1) is thought to play an essential role in modulating the development and progression of cervical neoplasia. Two novel genetic polymorphisms, RRM1 −756T>C and −269 C>A, are significantly correlated with RRM1 expression. Some epidemiological...

Cervical cancer screening guidelines do not comprehensively define what constitutes high risk. This study developed and validated simple risk-scoring schemes to improve Papanicolaou smear screening for women at high risk. Four cumulative risk score (CRS) schemes were derived respectively for the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia gra...

Background: The role of soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) remains unclear. We sought to determine whether sCD40L was an efficient serum marker as with WBC and CRP in PID patients. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the plasma levels of sCD40L before and after routine protocol treatments...

Genetic variants are reported to play an important role in the susceptibility of breast cancer. Ribonucleotide reductase 1 (RRM1) is suggested to play an essential role in the regulation of cancer development. The purpose of this study was to identify novel gene polymorphisms of RRM1 -756T>C and RRM1 -269 C>A specific to patients with breast cancer...

The purpose of this study was to investigate genetic impact of TIMP-3 -1296 T>C (rs9619311) and TIMP-4 -55 T>C (rs3755724) gene polymorphisms on the susceptibility and clinicopathological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 759 subjects, including 530 healthy controls and 229 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, were re...

Objective: To investigate the correlation of two important inflammatory biomarkers, plasma osteopontin and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), with the severity and outcome of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Materials and methods: Sixty-one patients with PID, including 25 patients with tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA), were consecuti...

To investigate the implication of ribonucleotide reductase M2 (RRM2) in the carcinogenesis of uterine cervix and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of cancer patients. The impact of RRM2 on cell viability was investigated in SiHa cervical cancer cells after RRM2 knockdown and the addition of cisplatin, which ind...

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a common infection in women of reproductive age. However, diagnosis of PID can be difficult due to the wide variation in the symptoms and signs, ranging from subtle or mild symptoms to severe pain in the lower abdomen. Clinical diagnosis alone has only 87 percent sensitivity and 50 percent specificity. Therefore...

The purpose of this study was to identify gene polymorphisms of interleukin-18 (IL-18) -607A/C and -137G/C specific to patients with oral cancer susceptibility and clinicopathological status. A total of 1,126 participants, including 559 healthy people and 567 patients with oral cancer, were recruited for this study. Allelic discrimination of -607A/...

Plasma YKL-40 level has been reported as playing a significant role in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, the correlation between plasma level of YKL-40 and the severity of CAP has not been reported. This study identifies the relationship between plasma level changes of the YKL-40 gene in adult patients hospitalized with CAP. The ELISA wa...

To investigate the concentrations of plasma growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6) and its soluble tyrosine kinase receptor sAxl in women with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and their association with clinical outcomes of PID. Blood specimens were consecutively collected from the 64 patients with PID before and after treatment and 70 healthy wo...

As lactobacilli possess an antagonistic growth property, these bacteria may be beneficial as bioprotective agents for infection control. However, whether the antagonistic growth effects are attributed to the lactobacilli themselves or their fermentative broth remains unclear. The antagonistic growth effects of Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobaci...

Objective: To estimate the expression of plasma soluble E-cadherin and the gene polymorphism in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Design: Hospital-based case-control study. Setting: University hospital. Patient(s): Sixty-four women with PID. Intervention(s): Blood specimen collection from patients before and after they recei...

Background: To determine expression levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) in plasma and to identify gene polymorphisms specific to patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and healthy controls. Methods: Enzyme-linked im...

As lactobacilli possess an antagonistic growth property, these bacteria may be beneficial as bioprotective agents for infection control. However, whether the antagonistic growth effects are attributed to the lactobacilli themselves or their fermentative broth remains unclear. The antagonistic growth effects of Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobaci...

This study aimed to investigate the association of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) gene polymorphisms with the neoplastic lesions of uterine cervix in Mid-Taiwan women. Four hundred ninety-eight blood samples were collected from 161 patients with neoplasia of uterine cervix, including 76 cancer patients, 61 patients with high-grade dysplasia,...

To evaluate the impact of plasminogen activator (PA) system genes, including urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), uPA receptor (uPAR), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene polymorphisms in patients with the cervical neoplasia. In total, 336 blood samples were collected from healthy women and 136 patients with cervical neoplasia to a...

The aim of this study was to estimate the relationship between gene polymorphisms of CCL5-28, CCL5-403, and CCR5 to the susceptibility of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 449 subjects, including 347 healthy controls and 102 patients with HCC, were recruited in this study and subjected to polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment leng...

The majority of breast cancer patients are resistant to chemotherapy or radiotherapy due to the down-regulation or lack of caspase-3 expression. Capsaicin was found to inhibit cancer cell growth in caspase-3-deficient human breast cancer cells. This study aimed to investigate the growth-inhibitive effect of capsaicin and its mechanisms in human bre...

The purpose of this study was to analyse the major compound in the leaf essential oil of Cinnamomum osmophloeum Kaneh. and to examine its in vivo toxicity and cytokine-modulatory effects. The HS-GC/MS and quantitative HPLC analyses showed the concentrations of the major compounds, cinnamaldehyde, benzaldehyde and 3-phenylpropionaldehyde, in the lea...

Tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2) has high affinity for matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). Few studies simultaneously investigate their implication in prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. We used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical method for cervical tissues and microarrays to inves...

To detect the expression of plasma neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) and its complex with matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the levels of plasma NGAL and NGAL/MMP-9 complex. The levels of plasma NGAL or NGAL/MMP-9 complex were...

Our purpose here was to detect the association among plasma osteopontin concentration, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of osteopontin gene, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) were respectively used to measure th...

To investigate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of nonmetastatic clone 23 type 1 (nm23-H1) gene with endometrial cancer and their implication in clinicopathologic characteristics of women in Taiwan. Three hundred and fifty-nine blood samples were collected from 268 healthy women and 91 patients with endometrial cancer to an...

Hypothesis: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in promoter of human nonmetastatic clone 23 type 1 (nm23-H1) may affect their binding with transcription factors and affect promoter activity as well as gene transcription. Therefore, we investigated the impact of the nm23-H1 gene polymorphisms on the neoplastic lesions of uterine cervix in mid-Tai...

The purpose of this study was to estimate the role of the SLC34A2 gene in breast cancer. A total of 146 samples were collected from breast cancer tissues and their adjacent normal breast tissues. Reverse transcription and real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to estimate gene expression levels. There was a significantly increased gene expre...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant neoplasms worldwide and is the second leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. Genetic polymorphism has been reported as a factor for increased susceptibility of HCC. Glutathione-S-transferases theta (GSTT1) and micro (GSTM1) play essential roles in detoxification of ingested xeno...

A SYBR Green I-based real-time quantitative PCR assay was utilized using senX3-regX3 and IS6110 as targets to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 135 clinical samples from southern Taiwan. The bacterial loads of true positive samples estimated in this assay ranged from 33 to 7.7 × 105 CFU/ml, whereas false negative samples ranged from 10 to 25CF...

Cancer development involves the destruction of tight junctions, deprivation of cell polarity, and increased cell mobility. Claudin 16 (CLDN16) is a tight junction protein and plays important roles in the maintenance of cell polarity, cellular arrangement, adhesion, paracellular transport, and ionic permeability of various epithelia. A novel link pr...

The purpose of this study was to investigate genetic impact of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and its receptor chemokine receptor-2 (CCR2) gene polymorphisms on the susceptibility and clinicopathological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 446 subjects, including 344 healthy controls and 102 patients with HCC,...

Although cooking emission from high-temperature frying has been deemed a Group 2A carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, little is known about its impact on cervical tumorigenesis. To investigate the precancerous consequence of cooking oil fumes on cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN), a community-based case-control study...

The aim of this study was to examine the potential associations of two hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) gene polymorphisms, C1772T and G1790A, with the susceptibility and clinicopathological status of hepatocellular carcinoma. A total of 449 subjects, including 347 healthy controls and 102 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, were re...

Our goal was to compare the expression of plasma monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and the gene polymorphism in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and healthy controls. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) were, respectively, used to measure...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant neoplasms in the world. Genetic polymorphism has been reported to be a factor increasing the risk of HCC. Phase II enzymes such as glutathione s-transferases (GSTP1, GSTA1) play important roles in protecting cells against damage induced by carcinogens. The aim of this study was to...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relations of SDF-1 and its receptor, CXCR4, gene variants on oral cancer risk. PCR-RFLP was used to measure SDF-1-3′A and CXCR4 gene polymorphisms in 284 controls and 113 patients with oral cancer. After being adjusted for age, individuals with A/G heterozygotes of SDF-1 had a higher risk of 1.86-fold to de...

The aim of this study was to estimate the relations between hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) gene polymorphisms, C1772T and G1790A, to the susceptibility and clinicopathological status of oral cancer. A total of 521 subjects, including 347 controls and 174 oral cancer patients, were recruited in this study and subjected to polymerase ch...

The aim of this study was to estimate the relationship of glutathione S-transferases (GST)P1, GSTA1, GSTM1, and GSTT1 gene polymorphisms to oral cancer risk. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to measure these 4 gene polymorphisms in 274 controls and 164 oral cancer patients. Individuals with at l...

Acute infectious gastroenteritis causes high morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. The most important cause of gastroenteritis is virus infection. Diarrhea is the dominant symptom of viral gastroenteritis. It subsequently in-duces dehydration and malnutrition, which contribute to high morbidity and mortality in children. In Taiwan, rotavir...

The objective was to compare the expression of plasma stromal cell-derived factor 1 and the gene polymorphism in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease and healthy controls. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism were, respectively, used to measure the plasma stromal cell-deri...

To compared the plasma levels and the genetic polymorphism of myeloperoxidase in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and healthy controls. A random consecutive study. University hospital. Forty-four women who were diagnosed with PID. Collected blood specimens of patients before and after they received treatment. ELISA and polymerase cha...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant neoplasms worldwide. Genetic polymorphism has been reported as a predictive factor related to a higher risk for HCC. Because the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and its receptor, CXCR4, have been reported to play important roles in tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity in patients with hyperventilation syndrome. A total of 71 patients with hyperventilation syndrome and 60 controls were recruited in this study for measurement of the erythrocyte CA activity. CA activity was analyzed from erythrocyte using CA esterase activity ana...

Background and Objectives The role of human nonmetastatic clone 23 type 1 (nm23-H1), a metastasis-associated gene, is less clear-cut in cancer of uterine cervix; therefore, we investigate its expression in cancer tissues and its correlation with clinicopathologic variables and survival of patients.Methods Thirty cervical cancer tissues and their no...

To detect the expression of plasma matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9, and MMP-9:MMP-2 ratio in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). A consecutive study with approximate 1:2 case-to-control ratio. University hospital. Forty-seven patients with PID and 80 healthy women. Collected blood specimens of patients with PID before and...

Papanicolaou (Pap) smear test is implemented to detect cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in Taiwan. However, the utility of that has limitations. High-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) is an important risk factor in development of cervical cancer. In this study, we estimate the utility of HR-HPV testing in the screening of CIN. Firstly, 726...

To detect the serum expression of cathepsin B and cystatin C and the ratio of cathepsin B to cystatin C in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and speculate whether those are helpful indicators for the diagnosis of PID. A random consecutive study. University hospital. Forty-four women who were diagnosed with PID. Collected blood specime...

To study the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in cancer of uterine cervix and correlate its expression with clinicopathological parameters, recurrence and survival of patients. Twenty cervical cancer and 20 normal tissues from the same patients were collected to detect MMP-2 mRNA expression. From them, 16 cancer and 16 normal tissue...

We investigated the expressions and ratios of type 1 T helper cell (Th1) cytokines interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and interleukin-2 (IL-2), as well as type 2 T helper cell (Th2) cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-5 (IL-5), interleukin-13 (IL-13) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) patients. The human cytokine LINC...

The interaction between immune responses and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is coordinated between innate and adaptive immunity. Anti-HBs antibodies protect the host by blocking the binding ability of HBV. Anti-HBc antibodies are detected with persistent HBV infection. The presence of anti-HBe antibodies is often associated with recovery from active disea...

The role of proinflammatory cytokines in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is unclear. We therefore determined whether plasma proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were useful plasma markers in PID patients. Multiplex bead array analysis was used to measure the plasma levels...

Both active cigarette smoking and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are known risk factors for cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN). The association between second-hand smoke (SHS) and CIN has not been conclusively determined. We conducted a community-based case-control study to estimate the relationship between SHS and CIN. Potential study s...

BACKGROUND: Both active cigarette smoking and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are known risk factors for cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN). The association between second-hand smoke (SHS) and CIN has not been conclusively determined. We conducted a community-based case-control study to estimate the relationship between SHS and CIN. METHO...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a high-risk factor for cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN) but the association between the quantitative HPV DNA load and the severity of CIN remains controversial. We conducted a community study to investigate the correlation between the two. Potential study subjects were selected through Pap smear screen...

The fumes from cooking oil, similar to cigarette smoke, contain numerous carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc. In this study, we examined the association between exposure to cooking oil fumes and the risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasm. The study population in this...