Y.T. Chang

Comorbidity profiles among patients with bullous pemphigoid: a nationwide population-based study.

Backgroundu2002 Bullous pemphigoid (BP) has been associated with neurological and psychiatric diseases; however, large‐scale population‐based study of different comorbid diseases in patients with BP is quite limited.

Malignancies associated with dermatomyositis and polymyositis in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based study

Backgroundu2002 Previous studies showed that idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) carried an increased risk of cancers. However, no large‐scale study of IIM has been conducted in the Chinese population.

Cytokine gene polymorphisms in Chinese patients with psoriasis

Backgroundu2002 Previous studies have shown that cytokine gene polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to psoriasis.

Psoriasis vulgaris in Chinese individuals is associated with PSORS1C3 and CDSN genes

Backgroundu2002 Besides the HLA‐Cw*0602 allele, the psoriasis susceptibility 1 candidate 3 (PSORS1C3) and corneodesmosin (CDSN) genes are two probable psoriasis susceptibility genes in the PSORS1 locus. The −79C, −26C and +246A alleles of the PSORS1C3 gene, the CDSN*971T allele, CDSN*TTC (619T–1236T–1243C) and CDSN*5 (619T–1240G–1243C) are strongly associated with psoriasis in the caucasian population. Until now, no haplotype study of the PSORS1C3 and CDSN genes has been documented in Chinese patients with psoriasis vulgaris.

No association of cytokine gene polymorphisms in Chinese patients with atopic dermatitis

Background.u2002 Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronically relapsing skin disease associated with the activation of T‐helper 2 cells. Recent studies have shown that polymorphisms in the genes for interleukin (IL)‐4, the IL‐4 receptor, IL‐13, and signal transducer and activator 6 (STAT6) may contribute to susceptibility of AD. To date, no cytokine gene polymorphism study has been conducted on Chinese patients with AD.

Psychiatric comorbidities in patients with alopecia areata in Taiwan: a case–control study

Backgroundu2002 Alopecia areata (AA) may be related to stress and has been reported to be associated with psychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, a nationwide study of the relationship between AA and comorbid psychiatric diseases has not been conducted, and the effect of onset age has rarely been reported.

Detection of Epstein-Barr virus in primary cutaneous amyloidosis

To determine the association of Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) with primary cutaneous amyloidosis (PCA), a retrospective study was conducted on skin tissue from 27 Chinese patients with lichen amyloidosus and macular amyloidosis. In situ hybridization with oligonucleotide probes was used to detect the expression of EBV‐encoded RNAs (EBERs). Eleven of 27 cases (40.7%) were found to contain the EBV genome. No EBV genome was detected in the skin of the control groups, including three cases of secondary cutaneous amyloidosis, two cases of primary systemic amyloidosis, and four cases of lichen simplex chronicus. Our study showed no correlation between the presence of EBV in PCA patients and the patientsage, sex, clinical type or severity of the skin lesions. Although our results suggest that EBV may be associated with some cases of PCA, the true aetiological role of EBV in PCA remains unknown.

Genome‐wide scan identifies a susceptibility locus for familial primary cutaneous amyloidosis on chromosome 5p13.1‐q11.2

Backgroundu2002 Primary cutaneous amyloidosis (PCA) is a relatively common skin disorder in South America and Southeast Asia. Most cases of PCA are sporadic but familial aggregation has been reported from South America and Taiwan. The different susceptibility among ethnic groups suggests that genetic factors may play an important role in its pathogenesis.

A study of PSORS1C1 gene polymorphisms in Chinese patients with psoriasis

Backgroundu2002 Although genetic analyses have identified the HLA‐Cw*0602 allele as the major risk allele for chronic plaque psoriasis in various ethnic groups, it has been proposed that the association of Cw*0602 is due to linkage disequilibrium and that other nearby genes are involved in susceptibility to psoriasis. The psoriasis susceptibility 1 candidate 1 (PSORS1C1, formerly SEEK1) gene, located 127u2003kb telomeric to the HLA‐C locus, is considered to be one of the potential candidate genes of psoriasis. Up to the present, no association study of the PSORS1C1 gene has been conducted on Chinese patients with psoriasis.

Comorbidity profiles in association with vitiligo: a nationwide population‐based study in Taiwan

The previous literature has demonstrated the association of autoimmune and atopic diseases with vitiligo, but there has been no large‐scale nationwide study conducted to confirm this.