We found TENS at bilateral ST36 and SP6 acupoints to be an alternative means of managing the plasma glucose level and improving insulin resistance perioperatively.

Abbreviations & Acronyms aHR = adjusted hazard ratio CI = confidence interval DM = diabetes mellitus HTN = hypertension IC = interstitial cystitis ICD-9 CM = International Classification of Diseases-9th Revision-Clinical Modification IR = incidence rate IRR = incidence rate ratio NHI = National Health Insurance NHIRD = National Health Insurance Research Database NTD = New Taiwan Dollars PY = person-year SLE = systemic lupus erythematosus Correspondence: Ming-Ping Objective: To investigate whether the risk of interstitial cystitis increases among the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Methods: This was a nationwide population-based cohort study. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Women aged >18 years newly diagnosed as systemic lupus erythematosus during 2001-2008 were identified as the control group. The comparison included individuals randomly selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database in the year of 2000, by matching one systemic lupus erythematosus participant with eight non-systemic lupus erythematosus participants with sex and age. These participants were followed up until being diagnosed as interstitial cystitis, or the end of 2011. Women diagnosed with lupus cystitis were excluded from this study.Results: This study included 7240 women with systemic lupus erythematosus and 57 920 women without systemic lupus erythematosus as controls. The incidence rate of interstitial cystitis was significantly higher in the systemic lupus erythematosus group, with an incidence rate ratio of 2.26 (95% confidence interval 1.57-3.27, P < 0.0001). After adjustment, the risk increased by 2.45-fold (adjusted hazard ratio 2.45, 95% confidence interval 1.57-3.27, P < 0.05). Age as a factor increases incidence rate ratios among all age groups, 2.12-, 3.32-and 4.65-fold. Age ≥45 years had an increased adjusted hazard ratio (2.07, 95% confidence interval 1.37-3.13, P < 0.05). Comorbidities, for example, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and renal disease, were insignificant. Conclusions: This is the first population-based cohort study showing a higher incidence of interstitial cystitis among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. These findings support the concordance of interstitial cystitis with autoimmune diseases, and the temporal relationship to develop interstitial cystitis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Study Objective: To investigate the surgical trends among different types of hysterectomy (abdominal, vaginal, laparoscopic, and subtotal) over a 15-year period in Taiwan. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Setting: A population-based National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients: Women undergoing various types of hysterectomy for noncancerous lesions.

Angiomyofibroblastoma is a rare mesenchymal tumor usually originating from the vulva and vagina with only one reported case arising from fallopian tube. We describe a second case of tubal angiomyofibroblastoma treated successfully with laparoscopic complete resection.

Objective: This study elaborated on the clinical experience of patients who underwent urologic management due to urologic complications after receiving a total hysterectomy at a regional hospital. Materials and methods: A total of 696 female patients received the four types of total hysterectomy including total abdominal hysterectomy, transvaginal hysterectomy, lapaparoscopic hysterectomy or robotic hysterectomy for variant gynecologic pathologies. Only 22 cases (3.2%) had urologic procedures performed during or after the operations from 2012/1/1 to 2016/6/30. Results: Of the 22 cases, thirteen (1.9%) received a series of conservative managements only, including cystoscopy, ureteroscopy, endoscopic ureterotomy, ureteral catheterization or double J stenting during the follow-up period. Nine more complicated cases (1.3%) eventually had definitive management, including repair of the urinary bladder rupture, repair of the vesicovaginal fistula, ureteroureterostomy or ureteroneocystostomy. However, five of these nine cases had both conservative and definitive management. The mean delay interval between the initial management and gynecologic procedure was 19.3 days. For definitive management and the gynecologic procedure, the period was 52.8 days. Conclusions: Compared to previous studies, the incidence of urologic injuries following a total hysterectomy in our hospital was similar. From the paper review, it seems early recognition does not improve the outcome but we found a 100% good outcome in patients with definitive management. Copyright © 2017, Taiwan Urological Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an emerging strategy for the early detection, prognostication, and identification of recurrent cancer. The clinical utility of CTC detection has been established, but few studies have employed this strategy for the detection of gynecologic cancers. Here, we present a novel, biochip-based microfluidic device for the detection of CTCs in gynecologic cancers. The study cohort included three patients with cervical cancer, eight with endometrial cancer, two with ovarian cancer, two with breast cancer, and one with vaginal small cell carcinoma. Four cancer type-specific molecular markers (PanCK, GATA3, HER2, and HE4), as well as CD13, were used for prognostication and recurrence detection, along with downstream genomic analysis. GATA3 and HER2 were markedly expressed in the patients with cervical cancer, and this expression was strongly correlated with the early detection of recurrent disease. All four molecular markers were expressed preoperatively in the patients with endometrial cancer, and the re-expression of different markers was observed at follow-up before recurrence was confirmed. CD13 was identified as an alternative prognostic marker for both cervical and endometrial cancer. Our pilot study indicated that the novel CTC detection system can be used for prognostication and early detection of disease recurrence, which needed further investigation.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has profound adverse effects on pregnant women, increasing the incidences of preeclampsia, preterm birth, maternal admission to intensive care units, and even maternal death in addition to an increased risk of severe neonatal morbidity. [1][2][3] Acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine was low at the beginning of the pandemic owing to the initial paucity of data in the pregnant population, with such hesitancy especially high in societies with a low prevalence of the disease. 4 With the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of June 2021 in Taiwan, the Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (TCDC) encouraged pregnant women to be vaccinated after weighing the risks and benefits of the vaccines available at that time. However, at the time, there were no data on the safety profile of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines in the Asian population, especially among pregnant women.

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