About the Authors

Ming-Chi Lu

Affiliations Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

Wen-Yao Yin

Affiliations School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, Division of General Surgery, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan

Tzung-Yi Tsai

Affiliations Department of Medical Research, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan, Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi College of Technology, Hualien, Taiwan, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

Malcolm Koo

m.koo@utoronto.ca (MK); tzuchilai@gmail.com (NL)

Affiliations Department of Medical Research, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Ning-Sheng Lai

m.koo@utoronto.ca (MK); tzuchilai@gmail.com (NL)

Affiliations Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MCL WYY NSL. Performed the experiments: MK TYT MCL. Analyzed the data: MK TYT MCL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MCL WYY NSL. Wrote the paper: MCL MK.