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Purpose: To clarify and investigate the prevalence and clinical impact of hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection in Taiwan's communities., Methods: HDV infection in patients with chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection was examined using an anti-HDV antibody in Yonghe Cardinal Tien Hospital (YCTH), a district hospital in Taiwan. Clinical characteristics of anti-HDV-positive and anti-HDV-negative patients were collected and compared. These characteristics were also compared with the data collected from a medical center. Continuous variables and confounding factor adjustments were compared using the analysis of covariance method, whereas categorical variables were compared using the logistic regression method., Results: A total of 346 patients with chronic HBV infection were assessed from 2018 to 2019. Among them, 4 (1.15%) were positive for anti-HDV. The clinical, virological, and biochemical characteristics were similar between anti-HDV-positive and anti-HDV-negative groups. None of the four patients was positive for serum HDV RNA. Another 18 anti-HDV-positive patients were identified from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). The clinical, virological, and biochemical characteristics of anti-HDV-positive patients from YCTH and NTUH were also similar., Conclusion: The prevalence of HDV and the serum HDV RNA-positive rate were low in district hospitals in Taiwan. Coexisting HDV infection did not influence the clinical manifestation of patients with chronic HBV infection in Taiwan. However, because the number of HDV RNA cases was very small, our findings may not be conclusive. Besides, since the sensitivity of current anti-HDV kit is not 100%, more sensitive methods are needed to achieve reliable prevalence data., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background/purpose: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene are associated with allergic diseases in different populations. This study aimed to determine the distribution of two SNPs at -1082A/G and -592A/C (rs1800896 and rs1800872, respectively) in the IL-10 gene promoter of Taiwanese food allergy (FA) patients, and also to compare the serum IL-10 levels between patients with (FA) and controls., Methods: Thirty-seven patients with FA and 52 controls were enrolled, and their peripheral blood was collected for IL-10 SNP genotyping and the corresponding serum IL-10 level of each genotype., Results: The thirty-seven FA patients had positive food-specific IgE (≥ 0.75kU/L) to more than one food, and the most frequent allergens wereshrimp and crab (56.8% and 35.1%, respectively). The genotype distributions in the FA patients compared to the control group were AA and AG at -1082A/G (86.5% and 13.5% vs. 86.6% and 13.4%, respectively), and AA, AC, and CC at -592A/C (45.9%, 43.3% and 10.8% vs. 38.5%, 48.1% and 13.4%, respectively). Serum IL-10 levels were significantly lower in the FA group than in the control group (p=0.0187), and the IL-10 level of -592A/C of genotype AA was significantly lower than that of the other genotypes (AC+CC) (p=0.007). Patients with AA/AA haplotype homozygotes (10 of 24) had significantly lower serum IL-10 levels than those with other haplotypes., Conclusions: The two SNPs at -1082A/G and -592A/C of IL-10 were associated with FA in our Taiwanese population, and FA patients with the genotype AA/AA haplotype homozygotes had lower serum IL-10 levels. This suggests that IL-10 might play a critical role in the pathogenesis of FA. We suggest that it may be practicable to evaluate the serum IL-10 levels of FA patients and to predict the possibility of FA if genotypes and haplotypes are checked regularly., (Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

An aerosol light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system was used to measure the depth of the atmospheric mixing layer over Taipei, Taiwan in the spring of 2005. This paper presents the variations of the mixing height and the mixing ratios of air pollutants during an episode of air quality deterioration (March 7-10, 2005), when Taipei was under an anti-cyclonic outflow of a traveling high-pressure system. It was found that, during those days, the urban mixing height reached its daily maximum of 1.0-1.5 km around noon and declined to 0.3-0.5 km around 18:00 (LST). In terms of hourly averages, the mixing height increased with the ambient temperature linearly by a slope of 166 m/degrees C in daytime. The consistency between the changes in the mixing height and in the ambient temperature implied that the mixing layer dynamics were dominated by solar thermal forcing. As the cap of the mixing layer descended substantially in the afternoon, reduced dispersion in the shallow mixing layer caused the concentrations of primary air pollutants to increase sharply. Consequently, the pollutant concentration exhibited an anti-correlation with the mixing height. While attentions are usually focused on the pollution problems occurring in a morning inversion layer, the results of this study indicate that the air pollution and its health impacts could be even more severe as the mixing layer is getting shallow in the afternoon.

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common gastrointestinal disease, yet there is no definitive gold standard to describe and diagnose it., Aim: We used endoscopic examination and Carlsson's questionnaire to evaluate the prevalence of erosive esophagitis during health examinations of individuals in Taiwan., Methods: From October 2001 to March 2002, 778 people underwent self-paid health examinations including esophagogastroduodenoscopic examinations. All subjects completed Carlsson's questionnaire before endoscopy. We determined the positive predict rate, negative predict rate, sensitivity, and specificity of the Carlsson's score for predicting esophagitis and relationships of the score (score > or =4 vs score <4) and esophagitis based on sex, age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, peptic ulcer and drinking habits., Results: One hundred and thirty-one people with scores > or =4 were highly suspected to have GERD. Of them, 21 were diagnosed as having reflux erosive esophagitis (16.0%) on endoscopic examination. Of 647 people whose scores were <4, 49 were diagnosed with having reflux erosive esophagitis (7.6%). Thus, 70 people were diagnosed as having erosive esophagitis for a prevalence of 9% (70 of 778). The difference between scores > or =4 and <4 to detect esophagitis differed significantly (P < 0.001). Total esophagitis differed significantly according to BMI, drinking habit and sex., Conclusion: The prevalence of reflux esophagitis is 9.00% at a single medical center in Taiwan. Esophagitis is positively related to higher BMI, alcohol consumption and being of male sex. Predicting the prevalence of esophagitis in a general population by using Carlsson's questionnaire was unsatisfactory., (Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)