Dry eye disease (DED) has become a common eye disease in recent years and appears to be influenced by environmental factors. This study aimed to examine the association between the first occurrence of DED, air pollution and weather changes in Taiwan. We used the systematic sampling cohort database containing 1,000,000 insureds of the National Health Insurance of Taiwan from 2004 to 2013, and identified a total of 25,818 eligible DED subjects. Environmental data, including those of air pollutants, temperature and relative humidity, were retrieved from the environmental monitoring stations adjacent to subjects’ locations of clinics as exposure information. We applied the case-crossover design, which used the same subjects experiencing exposures on diagnosis days as cases and those on other days as controls. The descriptive statistics showed that the first occurrences of DED were the most for the elderly by age (53.6%), women by gender (68.9%), and spring by season (25.9%). Multivariate conditional logistic regression analyses indicated that carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and temperature were positively associated with DED (p < 0.05), while relative humidity was negatively related (p < 0.001). Because CO and NO₂ together are considered a surrogate of traffic emission, which is easier to control than the uprising temperature, it is suggested that efficient management and control of traffic emission may lower the probability of DED occurrence.

Background: Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by the development of multiple hamartomas in many internal organs. Mutations in either one of 2 genes, TSC1 and TSC2, have been attributed to the development of TSC. More than two-thirds of TSC patients are sporadic cases, and a wide variety of mutations in the coding region of the TSC1 and TSC2 genes have been reported. Methods: Mutational analysis of TSC1 and TSC2 genes was performed in 84 Taiwanese TSC families using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and direct sequencing. Results: Mutations were identified in a total of 64 (76 %) cases, including 9 TSC1 mutations (7 sporadic and 2 familial cases) and 55 TSC2 mutations (47 sporadic and 8 familial cases). Thirty-one of the 64 mutations found have not been described previously. The phenotype association is consistent with findings from other large studies, showing that disease resulting from mutations to TSC1 is less severe than disease due to TSC2 mutation. Conclusion: This study provides a representative picture of the distribution of mutations of the TSC1 and TSC2 genes in clinically ascertained TSC cases in the Taiwanese population. Although nearly half of the mutations identified were novel, the kinds and distribution of mutation were not different in this population compared to that seen in larger European and American studies.

Anemia defined as reduced hemoglobin levels of red blood cells may carry less oxygen to skeletal muscle and impair physical performance. Previous studies have shown that exercise intolerance was related to moderate or severe anemia, however, the relationship to mild anemia was unknown. We investigated the cross-sectional association of mild anemia defined as a hemoglobin level of 10.0–13.9 g/dL with physical fitness in 3,666 military young males in Taiwan in 2014. Aerobic fitness was evaluated by 3000-meter run test, and anaerobic fitness was evaluated by 2-minute sit-ups and 2-minute push-ups, respectively. Multiple logistic regressions for the best 10% and the worst 10% performers were used to determine the relationship. There were 343 mild anemic males in whom 47.8% were microcytic anemia and 3,323 non-anemic males for the analysis. The multiple logistic regression shows that as compared with non-anemic males, mild anemic males were more likely to be the worst 10% performers in the 3000-meter run test (odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals: 1.47, 1.01–2.14) after adjusting for age, service specialty, body mass index, waist size, mean blood pressure, unhealthy behaviors, lipid profiles, and exercise frequency. On the contrary, mild anemic males had higher possibility to be the best 10% performers in the 2-minute push-ups test (OR: 1.48, 1.08–2.04). However, there was no association between mild anemia and 2-minute sit-ups. Our findings suggest that unspecified mild anemia might be associated with lower cardiorespiratory fitness but not with anaerobic fitness in physically active military males.