Acne is a disease of the pilosebaceous unit affecting both teenagers and adults. The treatment of acne is sometimes frustrating due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, skin irritation and lack of novel therapy....Acne is a disease of the pilosebaceous unit affecting both teenagers and adults. The treatment of acne is sometimes frustrating due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, skin irritation and lack of novel therapy. Light and vacuum devices, also known as photopneumatic therapy, have been shown promising as a generally well-tolerated adjunctive treatment of acne vulgaris. We conducted a clinical study using such device to assess the efficacy and safety as an adjunctive treatment of acne in Taiwan Residents patients. Twenty patients received six sequential treatments every one to two weeks in the facial region. A 4 × 4 cm2 area on cheek was chosen as a control area and was not treated with photopneumatic device. Safety parameters and adverse events were recorded. VISIA Complexion Analysis System was used for image analysis on the improvement of four parameters, namely, pigmentation, pore reduction, redness and porphyrin levels. There was an overall improvement in pigmentation, pore size, redness and porphyrin levels on treatment areas. The treatment areas showed statistically significant improvement (p < 0.05) in pigmentation and pore sizes compared with the control areas using paired samples T-test. Mild and self-limiting localized adverse events, mostly focal petechiae or mild irritation, were reported. Our study has demonstrated that photopneumatic therapy is an effective, safe and relatively well-tolerated procedure in Taiwan Residents acne patients.展开更多
Aim: In this study we used the Nelson’s Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST) to find the differences between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) group/Vascular dementia (VD) group and a normal control group (non-dementia and non-...Aim: In this study we used the Nelson’s Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST) to find the differences between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) group/Vascular dementia (VD) group and a normal control group (non-dementia and non-AD), and to identify the commonality between the MCST and dementia patients. Patients and Methods: The MCST was administered to 32 AD patients, 18 vascular dementia patients, and 38 controls. The relationship between the MCST performance and demographic characteristics was evaluated. Results: There were no statistical differences in age, sex, level of education, smoking, drinking and depression in the three groups. The MCST was classified into four groups for analysis—number of categories completed (Cat), preservative error score (PE), non-preservative error score (NPE), unique error (UE) and total error (TE). For Cat, UE and TE showed a significant difference in all three groups, whereas PE and NPE revealed no significant difference. Conclusion: These findings suggest that cognitive function appears to significantly impair MCST performances in AD and VD patients, so these should be taken into consideration during an interpretation of the clinical assessment. For the effective use of the MCST in a clinical setting, further studies of specific clinical populations are planned to develop normative data for elderly Taiwan Residents people.展开更多
文摘Acne is a disease of the pilosebaceous unit affecting both teenagers and adults. The treatment of acne is sometimes frustrating due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, skin irritation and lack of novel therapy. Light and vacuum devices, also known as photopneumatic therapy, have been shown promising as a generally well-tolerated adjunctive treatment of acne vulgaris. We conducted a clinical study using such device to assess the efficacy and safety as an adjunctive treatment of acne in Taiwan Residents patients. Twenty patients received six sequential treatments every one to two weeks in the facial region. A 4 × 4 cm2 area on cheek was chosen as a control area and was not treated with photopneumatic device. Safety parameters and adverse events were recorded. VISIA Complexion Analysis System was used for image analysis on the improvement of four parameters, namely, pigmentation, pore reduction, redness and porphyrin levels. There was an overall improvement in pigmentation, pore size, redness and porphyrin levels on treatment areas. The treatment areas showed statistically significant improvement (p < 0.05) in pigmentation and pore sizes compared with the control areas using paired samples T-test. Mild and self-limiting localized adverse events, mostly focal petechiae or mild irritation, were reported. Our study has demonstrated that photopneumatic therapy is an effective, safe and relatively well-tolerated procedure in Taiwan Residents acne patients.
文摘Aim: In this study we used the Nelson’s Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST) to find the differences between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) group/Vascular dementia (VD) group and a normal control group (non-dementia and non-AD), and to identify the commonality between the MCST and dementia patients. Patients and Methods: The MCST was administered to 32 AD patients, 18 vascular dementia patients, and 38 controls. The relationship between the MCST performance and demographic characteristics was evaluated. Results: There were no statistical differences in age, sex, level of education, smoking, drinking and depression in the three groups. The MCST was classified into four groups for analysis—number of categories completed (Cat), preservative error score (PE), non-preservative error score (NPE), unique error (UE) and total error (TE). For Cat, UE and TE showed a significant difference in all three groups, whereas PE and NPE revealed no significant difference. Conclusion: These findings suggest that cognitive function appears to significantly impair MCST performances in AD and VD patients, so these should be taken into consideration during an interpretation of the clinical assessment. For the effective use of the MCST in a clinical setting, further studies of specific clinical populations are planned to develop normative data for elderly Taiwan Residents people.
