About the Authors

Jia-Yih Feng

Affiliations Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Shipai Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Linong Street, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C

Kuan-Ting Liu

Affiliations Taipei City Hospital, Zhongxiao Branch, Tung Teh Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C

Edward Abraham

Affiliation Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Cheng-Yu Chen

Affiliations School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, Section of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, Ilan, Taiwan, ROC

Po-Yi Tsai

Affiliations School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

Yu-Chun Chen

Affiliations School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, Department of Medical Research and Education, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, I-Lan, Taiwan, R.O.C

Yu-Chin Lee

Affiliations Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Shipai Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C

Kuang-Yao Yang

kyyang@vghtpe.gov.tw

Affiliations Department of Chest Medicine, Immunology Center, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Shipai Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C, Immunity and Inflammation Research Center, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Linong Street, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: K-YY J-YF. Performed the experiments: K-YY K-TL C-YC J-YF. Analyzed the data: K-YY J-YF Y-CC P-YT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: K-YY K-TL C-YC J-YF. Wrote the paper: K-YY J-YF Y-CL EA.