Wei-Pin Chang

Taipei Medical University | TMU · School of Health Care Administration

Rationale The association between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) remains unclear. Methods Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, we conducted a nationwide population-based study to explore the relationship of COPD and future FGIDs development. The COPD cohort cons...

Asthma is a common and heterogeneous disease characterized by chronic airway inflammation. Currently, the two main types of asthma medicines are inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β2-adrenoceptor agonists (LABAs). In addition, biological drugs provide another therapeutic option, especially for patients with severe asthma. However, these drugs...

Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and relapsing skin disease. The medications for treating AD are still limited, most of them are topical corticosteroid creams or antibiotics. The current study attempted to discover potential AD treatments by integrating a gene network and genomic analytic approaches. Herein, the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (S...

The effect of comorbidities and the immune profiles of the kidney cancer microenvironment play a major role in patients’ prognosis and survival. Using the National Health Insurance Research Database (Taiwan), we identified patients aged >20 years with a first diagnosis of kidney cancer between 2005 and 2014. Differences in demographic characteristi...

Nephrolithiasis is a common disease affecting almost all populations, with an increasing prevalence over the past decades. Previous studies revealed several functional polymorphisms associated with the pathogenesis of nephrolithiasis. However, data on Asian populations are limited. In this study, three candidate polymorphisms were selected from pre...

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and sleep disorders (SDs). We first initiated a questionnaire-based clinical survey to assess sleep problems in the early stage after a TBI, followed by a population-based cohort study to evaluate the long-term risk of SDs in TBI patients. For short-term clinical surv...

Background— Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is the treatment of choice in Kawasaki disease (KD). IVIG is used to prevent cardiovascular complications related to KD. However, a proportion of KD patients have persistent fever after IVIG treatment and are defined as IVIG resistant. Methods and Results— To develop a risk scoring system based on gene...

Background: Epidemiological studies have reported an association between urolithiasis and cardiovascular disease. However, studies examining the risks of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in patients with urolithiasis are limited. Aims and methods: By using a nationwide population database, we conducted a matched cohort study to investigate the as...

Objectives: No large population-based studies have reported on the risk of cholesteatoma developing after allergic rhinitis (AR). This study used a nationwide population-based claims database to investigate the hypothesis that AR may increase the risk of cholesteatoma. Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: Data from Taiwan's Longi...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, can lead to long-term joint damage, chronic pain, and loss of motor function in the hands, and may share some common genetic factors with other autoimmune disorders, such as ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were reported by genome-wide a...

Importance: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) can cause an obstruction of the tubal orifice and thereby compromise ventilation of the middle ear. The resulting negative pressure in the middle ear may, in turn, lead to the formation of an eardrum retraction pocket and subsequent acquired cholesteatoma. This study hypothesizes that CRS may increase the r...

Purpose Sleep apnea (SA)-induced chronic intermittent hypoxia increases oxidative stress and inflammation, which may contribute to the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study evaluated the risk of PD following SA diagnosis. Patients and methods This was a 3-year nationwide population-based matched cohort study using claims data fro...

We recruited consecutive patients with stage III epithelial ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancers who had optimal residual tumor after primary cytoreductive surgery and who received intraperitoneal chemotherapy between 2002 and 2012. Two propensity score-matched sample cohorts were created. We found that the addition of paclitaxel as a second intr...

Th2 and Th17 cells are both associated with developing ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and asthma. Th2 cells are also associated with allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis (AD). The prevalence of such allergic diseases in AS patients is unknown. In this study, we intended to study the risk of allergic diseases in a 10-year follow-up population of new...

Poststroke sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) can hinder communication between patients and healthcare professionals, thereby restricting participation in rehabilitation programs and limiting improvements in physical performance. However, the relationship between stroke and SSNHL remains unclear. This study employed a nationwide population-b...

There are limited studies describing the association between ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients over 40 years old. We aimed to focus on the incident AS patients in those aged 40 years or older and to investigate whether events of CVD occurred more than the general population. We conducted a nationwide cohort st...

Objective: To estimate the risk of developing depressive disorder (DD) following diagnosis with cho-lesteatoma. Methods: In the study, we analyzed data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of Taiwan. A total of 599 patients newly diagnosed with cholesteatoma between 1997 and 2007 were included with a comparison cohort of 2995 matched non...

Background In the analysis of survival data for cancer patients, the problem of competing risks is often ignored. Competing risks have been recognized as a special case of time-to-event analysis. The conventional techniques for time-to-event analysis applied in the presence of competing risks often give biased or uninterpretable results. Methods Us...

Objective: To estimate the risk of developing depressive disorder (DD) following diagnosis with cholesteatoma. Methods: In the study, we analyzed data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of Taiwan. A total of 599 patients newly diagnosed with cholesteatoma between 1997 and 2007 were included with a comparison cohort of 2995 matched n...

Objectives: To investigate the association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and urbanization and compare the medication selection for RA patients in urban vs. rural areas. Methods: RA patients were identified among 1,000,000 random individuals from a 23-million-person nationwide health insurance database, and controls were matched at a 1 : 10 r...

Study design: Retrospective cohort study by using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Objective: The purpose of this study is to conduct a large scale cohort study to investigate the relationship between scoliosis and depression. Summary of background data: The association between scoliosis and depression has rar...

Studies have suggested that endometriosis may coexist with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Using a population-based cohort study, we followed subjects for a 5-year period to identify the risk of IBS after a diagnosis of endometriosis. This cohort study used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database as a source of subjects. A total of 6076 patie...

Association between endometriosis and ovarian cancer has been well established. Nonetheless, endometriosis may also be associated with endometrial cancer because of shared etiological mechanisms of both estrogen stimulation and chronic inflammation; however, the association between these 2 disorders has rarely been investigated. The National Health...

Background The association between heart failure (HF) and herpes zoster has rarely been studied. We investigated the hypothesis that HF may increase the risk of herpes zoster in Taiwan using a nationwide Taiwanese population-based claims database.Method Our study cohort consisted of patients who received a diagnosis of HF in 2001¿~¿2009 (N¿=¿4785)....

Data mining, also known as Knowledge-Discovery in Databases (KDD), is the process of automatically searching large volumes of data for patterns. For instance, a clinical pattern might indicate a female who have diabetes or hypertension are easier suffered from stroke for 5 years in a future. Then, a physician can learn valuable knowledge from the d...

Introduction: Depression might increase the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED), and ED might further exacerbate depression. The causal relationship between these two diseases remains controversial. In addition, limited evidence is available regarding the age-dependent and time-dependent effects on the association of depression and ED. Aim: We inv...

Background Osteopontin (OPN) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which is expressed in various tissues. It participates in the bone remodeling process and stimulates bone resorption by osteoclasts. It is also a core protein of cholesterol gallstones. We hypothesized osteoporotic patients might have higher risk in developing gallstones and conducted a po...

Osteoporosis and stroke are common diseases in elder patients. The relationship between these two diseases is unclear. This study was intended to estimate the risk of stroke among elder persons aged ≥50years within five years of being diagnosed with osteoporosis. We retrieved data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 (LHID2005) in T...

Chronic amphetamine intake leads to neurogenic bladder and chronic urinary retention. The mechanism underlying persistent urinary retention is unclear. The pelvic-urethral reflex (PUR) is essential for the urethra to develop sufficient resistance to maintain urine continence, an important function of the urinary system. Recent studies on PUR activi...

This study estimates the risk of symptomatic nephrolithiasis within 5 years of newly diagnosed osteoporosis in a Taiwan population. This cohort study consisted of patients with a diagnosis of osteoporosis between Jan. 2003 and Dec. 2005 (N = 1634). Four age- and gender- matched patients for every patient in the study cohort were selected using rand...

Jia-wei-xiao-yao-san (JWXYS) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine that is widely used to treat neuropsychological disorders. Only a few of the hepatoprotective effects of JWXYS have been studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of JWXYS on dimethylnitrosamine- (DMN-) induced chronic hepatitis and hepatic fi...

The association between liver cirrhosis (LC) and herpes zoster has rarely been studied. We investigated the hypothesis that LC, known as an immunodeficiency disease, may increase the risk of herpes zoster using a national health insurance database in Taiwan. The study cohort included cirrhotic patients between 1998 and 2005 (n = 4667), and a ratio...

Objective: The association between Kawasaki disease and autism has rarely been studied in Asian populations. By using a nationwide Taiwanese population-based claims database, we tested the hypothesis that Kawasaki disease may increase the risk of autism in Taiwan. Materials and methods: Our study cohort consisted of patients who had received the...

Sleep apnea (SA) is a common sleep disorder characterized by chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH). Chronic IH induces systemic inflammatory processes, which can cause tissue damage and contribute to prostatic enlargement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and SA in a Taiwanese populatio...

Bronchial asthma (BA), atopic dermatitis (AD), and allergic rhinitis (AR) are common allergic diseases. Environmental factors were indicated to influence the development of allergic diseases. To evaluate the correlation between the month of birth and the prevalence of allergic diseases in Taiwan. Data from 104,455 children were collected from the N...

This study provides epidemiologic data on the incidence of inguinal hernia repair in preschool children using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. We believe that the data on hernia repair in said database provide a close approximation of the true incidence of inguinal hernia in young children. A cohort of 1,073,891 deidentified...

Sleep apnea (SA) has been associated with cognitive impairment. However, no data regarding the risk of dementia in patients with SA has been reported in the general population. This retrospective matched-control cohort study was designed to estimate and compare the risk of dementia in SA and non-SA patients among persons aged 40 and above over a 5-...

Background: Osteoporosis and periodontitis are both considered global health issues that threaten postmenopausal women and the older population. However, the correlation between osteoporosis and periodontitis is still unclear. Methods: Using a nationwide Taiwanese population-based database, data from patients with osteoporosis (2003 to 2005; n =...

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase C (ITPKC, rs28493229) and caspase-3 (CASP3, rs113420705) are associated with susceptibility to KD in Japanese and Taiwanese populations. This study was conducted to investigate the involvement of these 2 SNPs in the risk for intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) resistance...

We examined 12 combinatorial patterns in ITPKC (rs28493229) and CAPS3 (rs113420705) 2-locus analysis. (TIF)

This study estimates the risk of stroke within 5 years of newly diagnosed dementia among elderly persons aged 65 and above. We examined the relationship between antipsychotic usage and development of stroke in patients with dementia. We conducted a nationwide 5-year population-based study using data retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance...

The number of stroke cases for each year during the 5-year period. (DOCX)

Background Kawasaki disease (KD) is an autoimmune disease that is associated with systemic vasculitis and other cardiovascular disorders. Recent studies have shown that the calcium sensor, stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1), is a key molecule that modulates functioning of the immune system. In this study, the association of STIM1 polymorphisms...

The incidence of upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) has gradually increased over the past 30 years. Although most reports have shown that UTUC occurs more frequently in men than in women, women have been found to have a worse prognosis than men. In Taiwan, a high incidence of UTUC has been reported, with an unusual minor predominance of female ca...

It is unclear if the prevalence of Kawasaki disease (KD) correlates with the degree of urbanization. We hypothesized that the prevalence of KD is more pronounced in urban versus rural environments. Methods. The National Health Insurance (NHI) program was implemented in Taiwan in 1995 and covers most of the population (>99%). We used the NHI databas...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile systemic vasculitis and has been reported to be associated with allergic disease. The risk of atopic dermatitis (AD) in preschool children with KD has not been investigated. The study was to determine the longitudinal risk of the development of AD in preschool children with KD. A nationwide 5-year populatio...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is the most effective therapy for KD to reduce the prevalence of coronary artery lesion (CAL) formation. Recently, the α2, 6 sialylated IgG was reported to interact with a lectin receptor, specific intracellular adhesion mo...

A primary ureteral stump tumor after a nephrectomy is rare; urothelial carcinoma of the ureteral stump after a nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma is even rarer. A thorough review of the literature indicated that only seven cases have previously been reported. In this study, we report the first Taiwanese case of urothelial carcinoma of the uretera...

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Multiple genetic and environmental factors are thought to be responsible for susceptibility to AD. In this study, we collected 2,478 DNA samples including 209 AD patients and 729 control subjects from Taiwanese population and 513 AD patients and 1027 control subject from Japanese population...

Basal characteristics of patients with Atopic Dermatitis (AD) and of normal controls in Taiwanese population. (DOC)

Basal characteristics of patients with Atopic Dermatitis (AD) and of normal controls in Japanese population. (DOC)

Pairwise linkage disequilibrium for all possible two-way comparisons among 10 polymorphisms in ORAI1 with 24 Japanese volunteers. (DOC)

Kawasaki disease is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. Previous genetic studies have identified certain candidate genes associated with susceptibility to KD and coronary artery lesions. Host innate immune response factors are involved in modulating the disease outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate CLEC5A (C-type l...

We further performed haplotype analysis of CLEC5A genetic polymorphisms in the Susceptibility, CAL Formation, and IVIG Treatment of KD Patients by using the Haploview 4.2 program and PHASE version 2.1, respectively. The haplotype analysis of CLEC5A still failed to show any significant results with the disease activity of KD.

Calcium nephrolithiasis is one of the most common causes of renal stones. While the prevalence of this disease has increased steadily over the last 3 decades, its pathogenesis is still unclear. Previous studies have indicated that a genetic polymorphism (rs17251221) in the calcium-sensing receptor gene (CASR) is associated with the total serum calc...

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammation of the sacroiliac joints, spine and peripheral joints. The aetiology of ankylosing spondylitis is still unclear. Previous studies have indicated that genetics factors such as human leukocyte antigen HLA-B27 associates to AS susceptibility. We carried out a case-control study to determine whether...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized by systemic vasculitis with unknown etiology. Previous studies from Japan indicated that a gene polymorphism of ITPKC (rs28493229) is responsible for susceptibility to KD. We collected DNA samples from 1,531 Taiwanese subjects (341 KD patients and 1,190 controls) for genotyping ITPKC. In this study, no signifi...

Store-operated calcium entry has been considered an important factor to regulate inflammatory reactions in nonexcitable cells. However, the effects of genetic polymorphisms of ORAI1, a main component of store-operated calcium channels, on nephrolithiasis and stone recurrence remain unclear. We investigated the association between calcium containing...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. A study from Japan reported that G to A substitution of a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the 5'-untranslated region of caspase 3 (CASP3) (rs72689236), which was associated with nuclear factor of activated T cell-mediated T-cell activation, is respons...