Taipei City Hospital

The Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology in Department of Internal Medicine of Taipei City Hospital diagnoses and treats patients with autoimmune, connective tissue, inflammatory and musculoskeletal diseases. We provide state-of-the-art care for patients with a wide spectrum of rheumatic, allergic and immunologic disorders, including desensitization immunotherapy.

Over the decades after foundation of Taipei municipal hospitals with the initial goal to take care of local patients on community bases, only a few physicians of these specialties were available in the individual local hospitals, and yet this group was never identified as an independent division. After the municipal hospitals merged into one Taipei City Hospital on Jan 1, 2005, we collaborated to set up the division to enhance our medical service with the base at the Ren-Ai Branch. Through affiliation with medical colleges, we aim to promote our quality of care and expand our multidisciplinary research. We hope to offer in the near future a training program that prepares fellow doctors for careers in academic allergic studies, immunology and rheumatology.

The specialty interests of the physicians include rheumatic disorders such as gout, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren’s syndrome, Behçet’s disease, mixed connective tissue disease, scleroderma, dermatomyositis, and polymyositis, systemic vasculitis, and the spondyloarthropathies including ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, and enteropathic arthritis. Skeletal disorders of interest include osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and osteomalacia. Allergic disorders of interest include bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, urticaria, angioedema, atopic dermatitis, and allergy to food and/or medication. The division also serves patients with regional anatomic pain syndromes including bursitis, tendinitis, and low back pain. Special tests and procedures performed include arthrocentesis and therapeutic joint injections, detection of auto-antibodies, allergen surveys, and desensitization immunotherapy.

Patients with the following presentations should consider evaluation at our clinics:
1. Chronic arthritis with painful swelling, local warmth, and erythematous change
2. Fever due to unknown cause
3. Lymphadenopathy due to unknown cause
4. Generalized muscle aching, swelling or weakness
5. Constitutional symptoms with skin lesions
6. Pallor and cyanotic change of digits when in the cold