About the Authors

Yin-Yi Chou

Affiliation Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Kuo-Lung Lai

Affiliations Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

Der-Yuan Chen

Affiliations Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Institute of Biomedical Science and Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, Department of Medical Education, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Ching-Heng Lin

Affiliation Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Hsin-Hua Chen

shc5555@hotmail.com

Affiliations Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Institute of Biomedical Science and Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, Department of Medical Education, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, Institute of Public Health and Community Medicine Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HHC YYC DYC. Performed the experiments: HHC KLL. Analyzed the data: CHL DYL KLL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CHL HHC. Wrote the paper: YYC KLL HHC.