Research conducted by Veterans General Hospital’s Taichung branch shows that a particular genetic variation, specific to Taiwanese, leads to a higher risk of stroke and dementia, and warned that families with a history of strokes or hyperlipidemia should be on the alert.
Department of Neurology doctor Tung Hsin (董欣) said the R544C variant in the Notch-3 gene is a common variant for Taiwanese and is considered a cause of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy.
If either parent carries the gene variation, their offspring would have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene variation, Tung said.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The genetic variation causes congenital fragility of blood vessel walls, and people who have it should control their lipedema levels.
Tung said past research showed that patients were usually diagnosed with the symptoms at the age of 54 to 56.
People with the gene variation could experience general leukoencephalopathy, cerebral infarction and a minute brain hemorrhage from the progressive buildup of cerebral white matter as they age, resulting in a decrease in cognitive and memory functions.
Head of the hospital’s center for dementia Kee Wei-ju (李威儒) said the center’s research team combed through the hospital’s archives, established during the hospital’s participation in the nation’s Precision Medicine Initiative, and found that there were 554 patients with the R544C variation, or a prevalence rate of 0.96 percent.
About 28 percent of patients with the gene variation have been diagnosed with dementia or have suffered a stroke, while the remaining 72 percent, while visibly healthy, have also demonstrated higher rates of leukoencephalopathy compared with patients without the gene variation, Kee said.
The team conducted neuroimaging for 63 patients with the gene variation without visible symptoms, and 37 people without the gene variation, showing that those with the gene variation experienced increased rates of leukoencephalopathy — comprising 0.336 percent of the cerebral mass — after the age of 48, higher than the 0.059 percent of those without the gene variation.
Lee said the research suggests that those with the gene variation experience increased rates of leukoencephalopathy 10 years before those without the gene variation and six to seven years before noticeable symptoms develop.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
RSS