Betel quid (BQ) is a favorite chewing item among many communities in different parts of Asia where it is popular by different names. BQ is a unique combination of nut or fruit from the Areca catechu Linn. (AN) tree, leaf from the Piper betle Linn. (BL) vine, slaked lime, paste of bark from the Acacia catechu tree and other spices. AN has been used successfully in various traditional medicines by different civilizations over several ages. Initially condemned by the medical communities for its health hazards, identification and application of potent pharmacologically bioactive compounds from different constituents of BQ have rekindled growing interest in related investigations. Curious about the stimulating role of BQ, we investigated the potential steroidogenic activity of hot water extract from BQ and its constituents and arecoline on testosterone producing ability in an in vitro experiment. Enzyme dissociated interstitial cells from adult mouse testes (ICR strain) were cultured with/without different doses of the extracts and the level of testosterone produced was assayed by an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) technique. It was found that at lower doses of arecoline, AN and BL extracts had significantly stimulated testosterone production over the basal level (p < 0.05). BQ extract, on the other hand, did not show any significant effect on testosterone production. Combinations of arecoline at low doses with 10 ng/ml ovine leutinizing hormone (oLH) showed increases in testosterone produced, while cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) co-culture showed dose-related inhibition. Our current finding hints at the possible dose-dependent dualistic role of AN and BL extracts and arecoline for testosterone production employing possible non-cAMP-dependent pathway of steroidogenesis. However, the identity of the active compounds besides arecoline and the exact mechanism involved remains to be further investigated.
Of all the countries in the world, why did you choose Taiwan to pursue your study? It is a question that I (comments of the first author) have answered a thousand times. My first visit to a laboratory at National Taiwan University opened my eyes to the possibilities of herbal medicine research, especially in the area of veterinary medicine. It became my ambition to link the knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda from the Indian subcontinent and their integration with other systems of medicine, including Western medicine (WM), to achieve the concept of Sustainable Medicine, firstly for animals and then for humans. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has implemented a technology development program to quickly establish the key technologies, and this is a moment of opportunity for Taiwan's traditional herbal medicine industry to upgrade and transform itself. This paper, initially intended to be a student's narration, has evolved into a multi-author treatise on the present state and likely future scenario of herbal medicine research in Taiwan.
Of all the countries in the world, why did you choose Taiwan to pursue your study? It is a question that I (comments of the first author) have answered a thousand times. My first visit to a laboratory at National Taiwan University opened my eyes to the possibilities of herbal medicine research, especially in the area of veterinary medicine. It became my ambition to link the knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda from the Indian subcontinent and their integration with other systems of medicine, including Western medicine (WM), to achieve the concept of Sustainable Medicine, firstly for animals and then for humans. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has implemented a technology development program to quickly establish the key technologies, and this is a moment of opportunity for Taiwan's traditional herbal medicine industry to upgrade and transform itself. This paper, initially intended to be a student's narration, has evolved into a multi-author treatise on the present state and likely future scenario of herbal medicine research in Taiwan.
S95 database compared with the patient diagnosis based on patient medical charts. Claims and administrative data were extracted for fiscal years 2013 (2013/4/1 to 2014/3/31) from Jichi-Medical school hospital in Japan. One hundred potential cases for each of the three cardiovascular events were randomly selected using the ICD-10 code. An independent clinical event committee (iCEC) reviewed the identified potential cases with medical charts to determine whether the cases met pre-specified criteria for the events. We selected the potential event data set based on algorithms combining conditions in the ICD-10 code, medical treatment and medication data, and calculated the positive predictive values (PPVs) of each outcome. Of the 100 patients for each cardiovascular event, all medical records were adjudicated by three physicians (two cardiologists and one neurologist) independently. RESULTS: Preliminary results showed the algorithm PPVs based only on the ICD-10 code were 81.6% (95%CI: 72.5-88.7%) for AMI, 31.0% (95%CI: 22.8-40.3%) for IS and 34.4% (95%CI: 26.1-43.6%) for HS. The PPV value for AMI was higher than previous studies in the US. Additional research is needed for IS and HS to identify the combination of conditions which demonstrate higher PPVs. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study in Japan to evaluate PPV for cardiovascular events identified using the ICD-10 code based algorithms. The results indicate that using the ICD-10 code, it is possible to identify AMI cases from Japanese claims database.
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