Background and objectives: Breast cancer is a common cancer in women and has been the fourth leading cause of death in Taiwanese women. Risk factors for breast cancer include family history of breast cancer, genetic factors, and not breastfeeding. Several studies have reported an association between repeated inflammation at a young age, especially among lactating women, and cancer; however, the number of studies about the association of mastitis and breast cancer in nonlactating women is still limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between mastitis in women aged ≥40 years and breast cancer. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study design. The data source was the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010 (LHID 2010), comprising data collected by Taiwan’s National Health Insurance program. Cases of newly diagnosed mastitis in women aged ≥40 years (ICD-9-CM code = 611.0) were selected from the years 2010 to 2012. Women not diagnosed with mastitis were selected as the control group, and their data for the years 2009 to 2013 were obtained through the database. In addition, the non-mastitis group was matched 1:10 by age. Results: A total of 8634 participants were selected from the LHID 2010, which included 734 cases with mastitis and 7900 cases without mastitis. After adjustment for age, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypothyroidism, and autoimmune diseases, the Cox proportional hazard model showed that patients with mastitis had a higher risk of breast cancer (aHR = 3.71, 95% CI = 1.9–7.02) compared with the non-mastitis group. The Kaplan–Meier curve also showed that women with mastitis had a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Conclusions: This study confirmed that women with mastitis have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Therefore, women aged ≥40 years could reduce breast cancer risk by taking precautions to prevent mammary gland infection and mastitis.

This study investigated the association between minor chest trauma and the risk of pneumonia among pediatric patients in a Taiwanese health care setting. For this retrospective population-based cohort study, the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database was used to analyze the data of patients with a minor chest injury between 2010 and 2012. Data were analyzed through a multivariate analysis with a multiple Cox regression model. Patients were divided into a chest trauma group (n = 6592) and a non-chest trauma group (n = 882,623). An increased risk of pneumonia was observed in the chest trauma group (hazard ratio = 1.23; 95% confidence interval = 1.02–1.49) compared to the non-chest trauma group. In conclusion, this population-based cohort study demonstrated that pediatric patients with minor chest trauma are at an increased risk of pneumonia. The short-term adverse effects of pneumonia could be severe when a patient suffers from mild chest trauma.

Patients with pelvic fractures could encounter various complications during or after treatments. This cohort study investigated the risk of mortality and readmissions in patients with pelvic fractures, with or without urinary tract infections (UTIs), within 30 days following the pelvic fractures. This retrospective cohort study examined claim records from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000). We selected patients hospitalized with pelvic fractures between 1997 and 2013 for study. Patients who had index data before 2000 or after 2010 (n = 963), who died before the index date (n = 64), who were aged <18 years (n = 94), or who had a pelvic injury (n = 31) were excluded. In total, the study cohort comprised 1623 adult patients; 115 had UTIs, and 1508 patients without UTIs were used as a comparison cohort. Multivariate analysis with a multiple Cox regression model and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were performed to analyze the data. Our results showed that the 1-year mortality rate (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 2.32; 95% CI: 1.25–4.29) and readmission rate (adjusted HR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.26–3.34) of the UTI group were significantly higher than those of the non-UTI group. Moreover, the Kaplan–Meier curve for the 1-year follow-up indicated that the UTI group had a higher cumulative risk of both mortality and hospital readmission compared with the non-UTI group. In conclusion, among patients with pelvic fracture, patients with UTI were associated with increased risks of mortality and readmission. Physicians must pay more attention to such patients to prevent UTIs among patients with pelvic fractures during hospitalization and conduct a follow-up after discharge within at least 1 year.

Background: There is a limited body of research examining the association between long COVID and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) as well as all-cause mortality. This study aimed to investigate the association between long COVID and both MACE and mortality. Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilized multicenter real-world data from the TriNetX research network platform, which contains electronic health records from multiple healthcare organizations. Patients aged 18 years and older who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between 2020 and 2023 were included. The exposure group comprised individuals diagnosed with long-COVID within 3 to 6 months after their initial COVID-19 diagnosis, while the comparison group included COVID-19 patients without a diagnosis of long-COVID. The primary outcomes were the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality. Follow-up commenced 90 days after the index date and continued until the occurrence of the study outcome or the date of the last available medical record. Results: The risk of MACE was markedly higher in the long-COVID cohort compared to the non-long-COVID cohort. The overall hazard ratio (HR) for MACE was 4.48 (95% CI: 3.95–5.07). Specific conditions such as coronary artery disease and stroke exhibited particularly high HRs, at 6.48 (5.29–7.95) and 3.46 (2.96–4.04) respectively. Mortality was significantly higher in the long-COVID group, with an HR of 1.53 (1.38–1.69). Conclusions: Compared to patients without long COVID, patients with long COVID had a higher risk of developing MACE.

Herein, we describe the rare anatomy of an abnormal shunt from the left atrium to the coronary sinus, which ruptured during a percutaneous ablation for atrial fibrillation. The iatrogenic lesion was successfully repaired after emergent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation set up followed by surgical exploration. The patient’s postoperative course was uneventful, and she was regularly followed up without any complications.

Dementia is a major public health issue. Emerging evidence suggests that periodontal disease and dental calculus are associated with increased risk of dementia or may serve as potential risk indicators. The role of dental scaling in prevention remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether regular dental scaling is associated with dementia risk across age groups. We conducted a nested case-control study using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database between 2000 and 2019. Cases were individuals with a first-time diagnosis of dementia during the study period, and controls were age-, sex-, and residence-matched individuals without dementia. Conditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between dental scaling and the risk of dementia. A two-sided p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study included 162,038 participants. After adjusting for potential confounders, dental scaling was associated with modestly lower odds of dementia (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98; p = 0.004). Subgroup analyses suggested that the association was more evident among individuals aged 50-64 years, females, and residents of the central and eastern regions. Regular dental scaling may be associated with a modest reduction in the risk of dementia, particularly in individuals aged 50-64 years and in females. Although the association was statistically significant, the observed effect size was modest and should be interpreted cautiously. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and investigate the underlying mechanisms.