About the Authors

Ming-Lung Chuang

cshy1292@csh.org.tw (JC-CW); yuan1007@ms36.hinet.net (M-LC)

Current address: Department of Critical Care Medicine and Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Tzu-Chin Wu

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Yau-Tung Wang

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Yau-Chen Wang

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Thomas C.-Y. Tsao

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Critical Care Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

James Cheng-Chung Wei

cshy1292@csh.org.tw (JC-CW); yuan1007@ms36.hinet.net (M-LC)

Affiliations School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Chinese Medicine Clinical Trial Center, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Graduate Institute of Integrated Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Chia-Yin Chen

Affiliation Chinese Medicine Clinical Trial Center, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

I-Feng Lin

Affiliation Institute and Department of Public Health, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: M-LC JC-CW. Performed the experiments: M-LC JC-CW. Analyzed the data: I-FL M-LC C-YC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: T-CW Y-TW Y-CW TC-YT C-YC. Wrote the paper: M-LC JC-CW I-FL.