Browsing by Author "Tsou, Yung-An"

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A feasibility study on non-invasive oxidative metabolism detection and acoustic assessment of human vocal cords by using optical technique
(2017-12-05)
Lin, Tzu-Chieh
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Chen, Jung-Chih
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Liu, Chih-Hsien
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Lee, Chia-Yen
;
Tsou, Yung-An
Voice disorder such as vocal fatigue is a common and complex multifaceted clinical problem that presents a significant impact on quality of life. In this study, the functional near-infrared diffuse optical technique (fNIRS-DOT) was proposed as a novel approach for human vocal cords oxidative metabolism detection and acoustic assessment simultaneously to provide a multidimensional assessment of voice disorder. A totally of 60 healthy subjects included 30 male and 30 female adults of age-matched were recruited and performed a vocal loading task to trigger a mild inflammation of the vocal cords in this study. In the results of oxidative metabolism, the vocal cords expressed hypoxia after vocal loading task in both male and female groups that could provide relevant information on the relationship between tissue oxygen consumption and supply for vocal cords diagnosis. Additionally, the results of optical acoustic assessment revealed the worse/changes voice quality after vocal loading task. Therefore, integration of non-invasive oxidative metabolism detection and acoustic assessment by using optical technique could provide more relevant information for diagnosis of voice disorders. The multi-functional vocal cords detection system could provide a good feasibility for clinical applications such as diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of voice disorder.
Impact of patient-related factors on successful autologous fat injection laryngoplasty in thyroid surgical treated related unilateral vocal fold paralysis- observational study
(2020-01-01)
Lin, Wen-Yang
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Chang, Wen-Dien
;
Ko, Li-Wei
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Tsou, Yung-An
;
Chen, Sheng-Hwa
The aim of this study was to compare major voice indicators in different sub-categories, the outcome of lipoinjection for patients might be refined and some voice prognostic factors could be more particularized in specific sub-groups. This is an observational study, and sub-grouped UVFP patients into 3 categories: male vs female, BMI >= 24 vs BMI < 24, Age >= 60 vs Age < 60 for more detailed exploring whether sub-categories affected voice diagnostic and prognostic parameters. Patients' voice data is recorded before and after the autologous fat injection laryngoplasty by a multidimensional voice program. Overall, 73 patients' voice performance were improved 12 months later by vocal fold lipoinjection. In the comparison of the male with female revealed female obtained better Jita than male by surgery (Female: 174.50 +/- 100.58 Hz; Male: 294.82 +/- 253.65 Hz; P < .05). BMI >= 24 vs BMI < 24 showed no statistical difference. Patients aged under 60 demonstrated better Highest F0, lowest F0, NHR and ShdB than elder ones 12 months after receiving vocal fold lipoinjection. Thus, Noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR), voice turbulence index (VTI), and ShdB (Absolute shimmer, dB) may be the major post-operative evaluating markers of patients' age under 60. Voice parameters showed no significant correlation with BMI. Female patients performed lower Jita (Absolute jitter, mu sec) than male patients 1 year after receiving treatment. The experimental results in this study showed UVFP patients' gender and age may stand as significant categories on analyzing clinical voice prognostic indicators, ShdB and Jita of autologous injection laryngoplasty.
Lead Screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease of IKK2 Inhibited by Traditional Chinese Medicine
(2014)
Tsou, Yung-An
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Huang, Hung-Jin
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Lin, Wesley Wen-Yang
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Chen, Calvin Yu-Chian
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生物科技學系
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic obstructive lung disease and is frequently found in well-developed countries due to the issue of aging populations. Not all forms of medical treatment are unable to return a patient\'s limited pulmonary function back to normal and eventually they could require a lung transplant. At this time, COPD is the leading cause of death in the world. Studies surveying I-kappa-B-kinase beta (IKK2) are very relevant to the occurrence and deterioration of the condition COPD. The sinapic acid-4-O-sulfate, kaempferol, and alpha-terpineol were found to be IKK2 inhibitors and helped prevent COPD occurrence and worsening according to a screening of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) database. The protein-ligand interaction of these three compounds with regard to IKK2 was also done by molecular dynamics. The docking poses, hydrogen bond variation, and hydrophobic interactions found Asp103 and Lys106 are crucial to IKK2 binding areas for IKK2 inhibition. Finally, we found the three compounds that have an equally strong effect in terms of IKK2 binding proven by the TCM database and perhaps these may be an alternative treatment for COPD in the future.
Treatment Success with Titratable Thermoplastic Mandibular Advancement Devices for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Comparison of Patient Characteristics
(2017-03-01)
Wang, Tang-Chuan
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Tsou, Yung-An
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Wu, Yi-Fan
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Huang, Chia-Chang
;
Lin, Wesley Wen-Yang
A titratable thermoplastic mandibular advancement devices (MAD) is clearly an effective treatment option in some patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Determining which patients may be more likely to respond to treatment with thermoplastic MADs and to adhere to treatment would be of obvious clinical relevance. This was an experimental descriptive study (N = 60). Patients with OSA were instructed to wear a titratable thermoplastic MAD for 3 months. Treatment success was defined as a 50% reduction from baseline in the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) or AHI <10 when wearing MAD. Adherence was defined as MAD use 5 nights/week. Treatment was successful in 66.7% of patients and 60.0% were adherent. All Polysomnographic parameters and visual analogue scale scores (sleep quality, snoring, waking refreshed) were significantly improved after treatment. The patients in whom treatment failed had significantly higher neck circumferences (39.3 cm vs. 37.5 cm, p = 0.014), higher baseline AHI values (26.6 vs. 18.0, p = 0.016), and smaller AHI reduction (-31.8 vs -53.1, p < 0.001) than those in the group in whom treatment succeeded. There were no significant differences in Polysomnographic, cephalometric, or visual analogue scale measures between patients for whom treatment was and was not successful, regardless of baseline values or the change rates after the MAD was placed. Titratable thermoplastic MADs can improve indicators of sleep quality, even in patients in whom treatment is considered to have failed.
Using Innovative Acoustic Analysis to Predict the Postoperative Outcomes of Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis
(2016-01-01)
Tsou, Yung-An
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Liu, Yi-Wen
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Chang, Wen-Dien
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Chen, Wei-Chen
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Ke, Hsiang-Chun
Objective. Autologous fat injection laryngoplasty is ineffective for some patients with iatrogenic vocal fold paralysis, and additional laryngeal framework surgery is often required. An acoustically measurable outcome predictor for lipoinjection laryngoplasty would assist phonosurgeons in formulating treatment strategies. Methods. Seventeen thyroid surgery patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis participated in this study. All subjects underwent lipoinjection laryngoplasty to treat postsurgery vocal hoarseness. After treatment, patients were assigned to success and failure groups on the basis of voice improvement. Linear prediction analysis was used to construct a new voice quality indicator, the number of irregular peaks (NIrrP). It compared with the measures used in the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program(MDVP), such as jitter (frequency perturbation) and shimmer (perturbation of amplitude). Results. By comparing the [i] vowel produced by patients before the lipoinjection laryngoplasty (AUC = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.78-0.99), NIrrP was shown to be a more accurate predictor of long-term surgical outcomes than jitter (AUC = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.47-0.91) and shimmer (AUC = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.37-0.85), as identified by the receiver operating characteristic curve. Conclusions. NIrrP measured using the LP model could be a more accurate outcome predictor than the parameters used in the MDVP.