Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) has a high mortality rate. Research has demonstrated that the occurrence of sICH is related to air pollution. This study used big data analysis to explore the impact of air pollution on the risk of sICH in patients of differing age and geographic location. 39,053 cases were included in this study; 14,041 in the Taipei region (Taipei City and New Taipei City), 5537 in Taoyuan City, 7654 in Taichung City, 4739 in Tainan City, and 7082 in Kaohsiung City. The results of correlation analysis indicated that there were two pollutants groups, the CO and NO₂ group and the PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ group. Furthermore, variations in the correlations of sICH with air pollutants were identified in different age groups. The co-factors of the influence of air pollutants in the different age groups were explored using regression analysis. This study integrated Taiwan National Health Insurance data and air pollution data to explore the risk factors of sICH using big data analytics. We found that PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are very important risk factors for sICH, and age is an important modulating factor that allows air pollutants to influence the incidence of sICH.

This study evaluated the differences in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) between rural and urban areas of Taiwan with big data analysis. We used big data analytics and visualization tools to examine government open data, which included the residents’ health medical administrative data, economic status, educational status, and relevant information. The study subjects included sICH patients of Taipei region (29,741 cases) and Eastern Taiwan (4565 cases). The incidence of sICH per 100,000 population per year in Eastern Taiwan (71.3 cases) was significantly higher than that of the Taipei region (42.3 cases). The mean coverage area per hospital in Eastern Taiwan (452.4 km²) was significantly larger than the Taipei region (24 km²). The residents educational level in the Taipei region was significantly higher than that in Eastern Taiwan. The mean hospital length of stay in the Taipei region (17.9 days) was significantly greater than that in Eastern Taiwan (16.3 days) (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in other medical profiles between two areas. Distance and educational barriers were two possible reasons for the higher incidence of sICH in the rural area of Eastern Taiwan. Further studies are necessary in order to understand these phenomena in greater depth.

A high mortality rate is an issue with acute cerebrovascular disease (ACVD), as it often leads to a high medical expenditure, and in particular to high costs of treatment for emergency medical conditions and critical care. In this study, we used group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) to study the characteristics of various groups of patients hospitalized with ACVD. In this research, the patient data were derived from the 1 million sampled cases in the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. Cases who had been admitted to hospitals fewer than four times or more than eight times were excluded. Characteristics of the ACVD patients were collected, including age, mortality rate, medical expenditure, and length of hospital stay for each admission. We then performed GBTM to examine hospitalization patterns in patients who had been hospitalized more than four times and fewer than or equal to eight times. The patients were divided into three groups according to medical expenditure: high, medium, and low groups, split at the 33rd and 66th percentiles. After exclusion of unqualified patients, a total of 27,264 cases (male/female = 15,972/11,392) were included. Analysis of the characteristics of the ACVD patients showed that there were significant differences between the two gender groups in terms of age, mortality rate, medical expenditure, and total length of hospital stay. In addition, the data were compared between two admissions, which included interval, outpatient department (OPD) visit after discharge, OPD visit after hospital discharge, and OPD cost. Finally, the differences in medical expenditure between genders and between patients with different types of stroke—ischemic stroke, spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)—were examined using GBTM. Overall, this study employed GBTM to examine the trends in medical expenditure for different groups of stroke patients at different admissions, and some important results were obtained. Our results demonstrated that the time interval between subsequent hospitalizations decreased in the ACVD patients, and there were significant differences between genders and between patients with different types of stroke. It is often difficult to decide when the time has been reached at which further treatment will not improve the condition of ACVD patients, and the findings of our study may be used as a reference for assessing outcomes and quality of care for stroke patients. Because of the characteristics of NHIRD, this study had some limitations; for example, the number of cases for some diseases was not sufficient for effective statistical analysis.

In the realm of research, the global health challenge posed by lung cancer remains pronounced, contributing substantially to annual cancer-related fatalities. The critical imperative lies in the early identification of pulmonary nodules, frequently indicative of impending lung cancer, to enhance patient outcomes and diminish mortality rates. Computed Tomography (CT) imaging stands out as a pivotal diagnostic instrument for the timely detection of these nodules. The swift proliferation of medical imaging data has underscored the pressing necessity for precise and efficient methodologies dedicated to nodule segmentation and measurement. These approaches are crucial in assisting radiologists in their diagnostic and clinical decision-making endeavors. In this study, we introduced a thorough method for analyzing lung nodules, leveraging dataset from Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH) comprising original CT images and manually annotated ground truth masks obtained with the assistance of radiologists at FEMH. This dataset is utilized for the segmentation of nodules. We employed advanced deep learning models, specifically the U-Net architecture, identified as the optimal model through our training process. We made substantial progress in nodule segmentation, attaining an Intersection over Union (IoU) score of 0.824 and a Dice Coefficient of 0.903 for the FEMH dataset. Furthermore, our performance improved when utilizing the merged dataset comprising FEMH and Luna16, yielding an IoU score of 0.862 and a Dice Coefficient of 0.926. Luna16 has been extensively utilized in numerous studies related to nodule detection and segmentation. In the next phase of the study, the best-performing model from our segmentation phase was utilized to predict nodule masks on the merged dataset. Subsequently, we measured the size of each predicted nodule by comparing it with the size ground truth mask in millimeters. In detail, this study achieved the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) at 0.99 and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) at 11.62. In summary, our study contributes significantly not only to the field of nodule segmentation but also extends its impact to nodule measurement—a critical stage in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Based on a meticulously curated dataset and employing deep learning techniques, our findings hold the potential to improve early detection and treatment strategies for individuals at risk of lung cancer. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing • Health care information systems

This study explores the feasibility of deep learning for classifying nodule neoplasms, analyzing their performance on two openly available datasets, LUNGx SPIE, and LIDC-IDRI. These datasets offer valuable diversity in image quantity, quality, and malignancy annotation methodologies, posing a real-world challenge for effective model development. To handle the disparities in these diverse datasets, we aim to develop a robust classification model trained using federated learning. This decentralized approach allows model training across datasets without sharing patient data, preserving privacy and overcoming data fragmentation. Our experiments demonstrate that federated learning enables the development of a robust and superior deep learning model compared to individual models trained on limited data. This combination of deep learning, and federated learning holds immense promise for nodule neoplasm classification and can significantly improve patient care and outcomes.